The Acquiring of Knowledge
by mutantpenguins
Summary: Edward leaves Central on a very specific mission: to find lost knowledge in an area to the west. He finds, however, much more than he bargained for. Ed/OC, rated T for safety.
1. Chapter 1

Yay, Ember feels all accomplished and stuffs, this being her first chaptered fic. So please read and review. Please?

In any case, the whole story has already been written and will be posted. Ember plans to try to do weekly postings, as daily is not really viable at the moment (she sneaks onto school computers and the like to access at all as it is. It's tough trying to update even that often.) If it is at all possible, two updates will be made a week, but don't go looking for something added every day. All it would do is put undue strain on Ember. And that's just not cool.

Now that THAT gripe is done, read and enjoy (hopefully)!

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 1

Even after working with him for so long, Edward Elric truly distrusted his superior Roy Mustang. Therefore it was perfectly natural that he was a little wary of being called in to his office this time.

"Oh, there you are, Fullmetal. Come here for a bit."

There it was again, that distrust and uneasiness. Even though former Colonel Mustang had been promoted to General two years ago, he still displayed a mischievous streak, meaning you never could tell what you were about to be assigned to.

The two went into his office and sat down. But there was someone else there, someone facing away from them. This mystery person was wearing a blue overcoat with the hood pulled up. That was about all Edward could tell about the person. He couldn't even tell what gender this person was.

However, General Mustang seemed perfectly comfortable with this person's presence, as he launched into business. "I have a favor I'd like to ask of you, Fullmetal."

Edward instantly saw his way out. A favor didn't have to be taken care of, it was perfectly optional. Nevertheless, he was still suspicious, and it showed in his voice. "What do you want, General?"

"You still don't trust me, after all this time? I'm hurt."

"You deserve it. But what do you want?"

"The Earthen Alchemist here has a mission that is very important, but doesn't trust anyone to help. Since I don't want any alchemists going anywhere alone, I'd like you to go along."

The Earthen Alchemist? Not anyone he had heard about. Maybe this alchemist was a newcomer? That was the only possible explanation, if this Earthen Alchemist had been trusted with something in any way important. This must be a powerful newcomer, one who hadn't quite had the time to develop a reputation.

This was strange. But Edward had been looking for a way to get out of Central for a little while. Ever since he had finally gotten his limbs and Alphonse's body back three years ago he had been in Central working for the government. He personally couldn't care less about what he did, but the government was not inclined to let someone as talented as him leave. So here he was, and had been for three years.

As much as he distrusted his superior, he was grateful for a chance to get out of Central for a while. However, he wasn't going to show it, and looked as skeptical as he possibly could.

"You know, that can change to an order at any time." And he meant it.

Ed dropped his skeptical act. "Whatever. It's not like I have anything better to do."

The figure cloaked in blue—the Earthen Alchemist—rose from the chair and flipped back the coat's hood, revealing short brown hair, and turned around.

The next thing Edward knew was that he was staring at a startling pair of bright green eyes. The features were fairly androgynous, but there was something feminine about them. That was confirmed when the Earthen Alchemist spoke.

Her voice was surprisingly clear and sharp. "Roy, you idiot, I don't need any help! I can take care of myself!"

So she knew the General, and fairly well. Not many called him by his first name like that.

He was speaking to her now. "Listen to me, Sarah. You are very important right now. You're a state alchemist, one of the few we've got, and a promising one at that. I know very well that you can take care of yourself, but I'm not taking any chances. Just humor me on this one before I have to order you both to comply."

The Earthen Alchemist—Sarah?—knew a threat when she heard one, and she quickly backed down. However, she refused to be totally beaten and walked out of the room.

The General sighed. "You can go now, Fullmetal. The two of you leave in the morning. And don't worry, she isn't usually like this. She's just mad at me."

That was a mild relief. Edward had been vaguely wondering if he would survive this jaunt outside Central. He just had to remember not to get on this Sarah's bad side. A hard task, to be certain, but Edward was sure he could manage it. He just had to show a little maturity.

_Maturity? Yeah, right!_ A voice inside him scoffed. _Since when have you ever been mature?_

Well, he hadn't, but he had to try. If he didn't, this Earthen Alchemist might wind up carrying his dead body back to Central.

~*~*~

The next morning Sarah woke up at dawn feeling slightly guilty about her outburst—in front of a total stranger, no less! Sure, she knew the Fullmetal Alchemist by reputation, but that made absolutely no difference. She was certain he thought she was a horrible person.

So she was nervous about the tiny little detail of her journey that was finalized the day before. The Fullmetal Alchemist would be traveling with her.

At least he wouldn't get in her way, of that she was certain. His reputation preceded him, and she knew exactly why he was so important to the government. Of all the state alchemists, he was probably one of the strongest and the only one known to have created a Philosopher's Stone, thus getting back his limbs and his brother's body, which had been taken in a failed attempt at human transmutation. Of course, not many people were privy to this particular detail, but she had connections. She could find out just about anything.

She had no more time to waste dwelling on what she already knew. It was time to leave. She put on her overcoat and walked to the train station, where she was supposed to meet the Fullmetal Alchemist.

He was already there, waiting for her. They boarded the train and spent the next few moments in silence.

Being a talkative one, Sarah couldn't stand the utter silence for very long. And so she did the first thing that came to mind—she introduced herself. "Hello, Fullmetal. My name is Sarah."

"Mine is Edward, and could you please not call me Fullmetal? I generally don't trust the people who do that very much, they tend to want something from me."

Well, he got straight to the point. But at least he was talking. "I'm sorry about yesterday. It's just so frustrating, how Roy thinks I'm a helpless child or something!"

"I was meaning to ask you about that. How do you know the General? I've never heard anyone call him that to his face before."

The Fullmetal Alchemist—_Edward_—was an observant one. She would have to be careful. "Oh. Well, he was friends with my brother a long time ago, so I grew up with him always coming over with my brother. He was almost like a second brother to me."

This seemed to make sense to him, for he moved on. "So, what are we doing, anyway? All I know is it's supposed to be important."

"Well, there's a rumor that somewhere in the West Area there's a clearing in a small forest with a rock in it. That rock is supposed to contain a great and powerful secret, and I think I know where it is."

He seemed interested. He knew exactly what could come of a rumor, having chased one for years himself. "And where do you think it is?"

She got out her map of the West Area and found the forest. It was relatively easy to find, since it was in the middle of nowhere. Sarah circled the area with a fingertip. "I think it's somewhere in this forest."

"Any particular reason you think that?"

"Of course. Almost every other forest in the area has been thoroughly searched and this one is by far the least accessible."

"That makes sense. Of course it would be in a place where nobody has looked. Do we know where exactly in that forest it might be?"

"No. That's where the fun part comes in."

Now he was skeptical. "The fun part."

Sarah couldn't keep the grin from her face. "So tell me, Edward, have you ever been camping?"

"Of course."

"Let me rephrase that. Have you ever been camping in the middle of the woods, at a time when your life wasn't on the line?"

She could tell from the look on his face that his vast experiences did not include camping, not the way she had meant it. This was going to be _fun_.

Shortly after that, the train pulled into their station. This was as close as technology could take them to the site. They would have to continue on foot.

The train ride had passed very quickly. She hadn't expected that. She also hadn't expected to enjoy the train ride so much. Ordinarily she hated trains, thought they were abominations that destroyed the earth. However, something about talking to Edward had made the train ride almost fun. She was actually, for the first time, sad the journey had ended.

If she had enjoyed that so much, then the camping part of the journey was going to be even better. She could tell.

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And that's all for today! Now, please do read and review. Also, comments on Sarah are most welcome. She's Ember's first original character, and Ember would LOVE to know if improvements can be made in any way.

Ember and Rags to Riches- the mutant penguins have moved on to BIGGER things! YAY!


	2. Chapter 2

Yay! There's a second chapter! Wow. Ember feels special.

Ah, the adventure begins… heehee. This is gonna be good. XD

Aigyou—Thank you soooooo much for your review! Yes, Ember agrees that there are far too many of those, and so she tried to make Sarah as realistic as possible. Gate help her if she reads one more of those "angel alchemist" things of which you spoke.

In any case… wow, Ember doesn't have too much to say. Maybe she'll feel more talkative next time.

In any case, moving right along…

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 2

Edward was mildly apprehensive about camping, but it could be far worse. He had been through far worse. And at least he would have someone with him who apparently knew exactly what she was doing. That was a good thing. It didn't hurt that Sarah was easy to talk to, either. This could actually turn out to be a good thing. At least it was an improvement from Central.

They continued to talk as they walked out of the train station, but it seemed Sarah had gotten bored of talking about the mission, for she pestered him with all kinds of questions. "You have a brother, right? How's he doing? Don't you miss him, being trapped in Central? And where did you grow up? Do you have old friends there?" And the list went on, Sarah sometimes walking backwards to see his face.

"Think you could let me answer one question before you move on to the next?"

She flushed. "Oh, sorry! It's just I've heard so much about you, but I don't really know you, if you know what I mean. I like to know people I'm traveling with."

Edward couldn't repress a chuckle. "To answer your questions, yes, I have a brother. As far as I know, he's doing fine. He went to our hometown Risembool, in the East Area, with our friend Winry. And yes, I do miss both of them, but we write often, so it's not as bad as it could be."

Suddenly he actually looked at her for the first time. She had seemed so imposing a figure the night before, but she was actually quite young, appearing to be around his age. She was also roughly his height, if a little shorter.

She noticed him staring. "What? Is my coat on backwards or something?"

"No, it's just you're younger than I expected. Shorter, too."

This was a wrong move. Her eyes instantly narrowed. "Who's calling me short, shrimp?"

It was on. "Midget!"

"Little person!"

"Dwarf!"

"Vertically challenged!"

"Minute fool!"

"Diminutive moron!"

"Pint-sized freak of nature!"

All of a sudden Sarah started laughing, a high, almost musical laugh. It was also very contagious, for Edward found himself chuckling. It was certainly a first after being picked on for his height.

In a complete change of mood, Sarah shouted "Come on!" and began running. Edward wasn't sure exactly which way she was going, but he didn't want to be left behind and have the General aim one of his vicious sparks at him. So on the off chance she was headed in the right direction, he began to chase after her.

She ran faster. Edward smirked. So she thought she could outrun him, did she? Well, she was in for a surprise. He was little, he admitted to himself, but he was fast. He had needed to be.

Soon, he had outrun Sarah, who slowed down ever so slightly in order to laugh while running. Since he had no idea where they were going, he turned to her. "So, is there any particular direction we're going?"

She grinned widely and shook her head. "No, I just wanted to run."

Edward groaned. It was going to be a long trip if she led them like this. After all, she was the one leading. She knew where she was going. Supposedly. Judging from this latest scenario, he highly doubted it.

Then again, she seemed to be orienting herself. "OK, here we are, so… we need to go… this way!" And she pointed in the exact opposite direction.

"And you couldn't have run that way because…?"

"No reason."

Edward shook his head and began walking in the direction she had indicated, knowing she would catch up.

Sure enough, she was right beside him in an instant. "I'm sorry about that, I was just so happy to be off that train. Trains are horrible, don't you think? Once you get on one, you're trapped; you can't run off like I just did. Plus they cut through the earth, change the way it looks."

Edward cut her off. "OK, I get it. Trains aren't the greatest, but you do get used to them after a while."

"Oh, that's right! You had to travel by train a lot, didn't you? Wasn't it awful?"

"Well, it's not so bad once you learn how to sleep on them."

She stared at him. "You slept on one of those?"

Edward grinned. "Several."

"How?" she asked, stunned.

Edward's grin grew larger. "Practice. Now, how long do we have to go before we should see a bunch of trees?"

"Oh, you mean the forest?" Her expression was totally blank, innocent.

Edward rolled his eyes. "Of course I mean the forest."

"Hang on, let me check the map." She rummaged around in her pack and found the map she was looking for. "Let's see, the shortest possible distance… I'd say about a kilometer, maybe a kilometer and a half?"

That wasn't too bad. He'd walked far longer than that. And the journey so far had already seemed so short. Was this because of his lively traveling companion? He had expected the opposite result from not sleeping during the train ride, but the time had seemed to fly.

Sure enough, it seemed like no time had passed at all when they reached the edge of the forest, even though the sun was beginning to set. If this trend continued, their journey would be over in no time. That thought almost seemed a shame, since Sarah was such a lively person she brought a touch of her liveliness into everything she did. However, Edward quickly suppressed that notion. There was a mission at hand.

~*~*~

As soon as they got to the forest, Sarah began to set up a campsite. Edward helped out once he saw what she was doing, and soon they had made a nice camp and Sarah was trying to start a fire. Unfortunately, matches did not seem to like her, for no matter how hard she tried, the fire wouldn't start.

She soon became understandably frustrated and muttered, "It's at times like this I wish I was like Roy. All I'd need to do is snap my fingers, and _bam_! There's a fire."

All of a sudden a drawling voice came from behind her. "Do I honestly hear a wish to be like our _dear_ general? Well, that won't do. That won't do at all." Edward took over starting the fire and soon it actually started.

"Only when the fire won't start. Which is surprisingly often, if you happen to be me."

He grinned. "Well, fortunately for both of us, I'm not, so the fire started just fine."

She gently smacked him upside the head. "Shut up."

"Make me."

Her eyes narrowed. "You're asking for it."

"Am I, now?"

Covertly, so he wouldn't see or hear, she gently slapped her palms together and touched them to the ground.

A sharp point rose from the ground directly underneath Edward. Shortly afterwards he was running around the campsite screaming. Sarah laughed the hardest she had in a long time at this sight.

However, he soon recovered, turned to her, and said, "You!" in the most menacing voice he could muster.

Sarah was careful to keep her expression innocent. "Me? Me what?"

"Don't play dumb with me, you're the only other person around. You know full well what."

It was so hard to maintain an innocent expression and tone. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Edward's only action was to point at the sharp point still showing above the ground.

"Oh, I didn't see that before! When did that appear?"

"Shortly after you transmuted it."

"I transmuted it? But I didn't draw a circle."

"Transmutation can be done without a circle by some people."

"True. I guess you would know about that."

"Yes, I would, and apparently so would you."

"But how does that mean I transmuted it?"

Edward had had enough by this point. He too clapped his hands together and slapped them onto the ground, but he created a metal staff.

Sarah grinned. This was going to be fun.

As Edward approached, wielding his staff, Sarah turned and ran into the woods, finding cover in the trees.

"That won't do you much good," said a voice behind her. She turned around.

Edward was already there, staff leveled at her throat. "If you do nothing but run, how do you expect to win? All that does is tire you out."

"Well, maybe I'm not a fighter."

"You're a State Alchemist. You'll have to learn to be one sometime."

He had hit upon the stumbling block of her life. She was skilled with words and her alchemy was all right, but she had no coordination to speak of. Her fighting skills were very, very limited, and she did little to improve them. She honestly didn't see the need, until Edward showed her just how lacking she was in skill.

He sighed and tossed her the staff. She missed it altogether.

"You really don't know anything, do you?"

He was really annoying her, rubbing it in like that. "So what if I don't?"

"The general was right, sending someone with you. So much for being able to take care of yourself."

That was too much for her. Clumsily she swung the staff in his direction.

Of course, he easily dodged it. "You're slow, you know that? And your grip's all wrong. Here's how you do it." And he repositioned her hands on the staff. "Now try."

She swung the staff again, and he dodged it just as easily. "That was a little better. That one would have actually hit me. But you're still too slow. You need to work on that."

"Well, maybe I don't actually want to hit anyone with this thing!"

"Ok, then. Hand to hand it is."

"Huh?"

Edward sighed gustily and shook his head. "You really _are _hopeless!"

And so began the first of Sarah's lessons in fighting. She hated them even before they started.

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And another chapter down. Wow. Ember's totally basking in the moment here. A second chapter. This is a first for mutantpenguins. They're moving on to new territory in their plan for world conquest!!!

In any case, please do share your thoughts. Ember is as of now incapable of reading minds. She plans to change that. However, since she can't right now you need to tell her what you thought via review.

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins once again!


	3. Chapter 3

HA! Despite the forces of illness that found their way into Ember's home (it's seriously a plague house; just about everyone has spent at least two days in bed with fevers and headaches and the like) she has come to update yet again! This was seriously the driving force behind her decision to go to school today, so feel the love.

This chapter is a bit longer than the last one. That's just the way it worked. There just wasn't a good stopping point anywhere before that. You guys would have killed Ember if she'd stopped it where she'd originally planned. Not telling where until the bottom of this page.

WOW! Ember has TWO reviews for the last chapter! She feels so loved…

Kuchaki—Thank you so much for your kind review! Ember's very glad you felt that way and hopes you will come back and keep reviewing!

Aigyou—YOU CAME BACK!!! *swoons* If it weren't for reasons described at the end of this chapter, you'd be getting marriage proposals by now. You make Ember that happy. Hope this chapter is just as good as or even better than the last one!

*puts on announcer voice* And now… the moment we've all been waiting for…

WHAT?! Ember's really a cow in disguise?!

No. Sorry, hate to dispel that rumor, but it is false.

Anyhow…

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 3

The next day they began their journey through the forest. Since she knew what to look for and was more experienced with woods, Sarah was leading.

It was slightly uncomfortable for Edward, the silence that now overtook both of them. He was sure she didn't like it much, either, since she hadn't shut up since they met. Until that moment, anyway.

However, he also marveled at the ease with which she moved through the woods. It was almost as if she was a woodland creature herself, one who had lived there her whole life.

It was amazing, the things you could learn about a person in a few short days. "So, I guess you do this often, then?"

She didn't bother turning around or stopping to answer, but kept moving. "Oh, all the time! I _love_ the forest! It's so beautiful, don't you think?"

He didn't get a chance to answer. All of a sudden her movement stopped. She quickly dropped to the ground, crying out in pain and clutching at her ankle.

Edward was there in an instant, propelled by an emotion he'd hoped never to feel again: sheer panic. It only lasted a moment, though, a momentary reaction to hearing a cry of obvious pain, and he moved past it to see what needed to be done. "What happened?"

She looked up at him, her expression rueful. "I stepped on it wrong."

Well, that was a relief in some ways and cause for even more concern in others. This girl was truly uncoordinated. "You stepped on it wrong," he repeated drily.

"Yeah. I do stuff like this all the time." She tried to get up and couldn't, unable to put weight on her left ankle.

"Let me see that. You probably hurt it worse than you thought, knowing you."

"Whatever." She took off her shoe and sock, revealing an already-purpling ankle. "Wow," she murmured, sounding almost impressed. "I really did a number on it this time, didn't I?"

"Looks like it." While the ankle was already swelling, there was no point tenderness that would indicate she had broken anything, and she wasn't screaming her head off whenever he touched the joint. She had probably sprained it. "Yep. You won't be walking on that for a while."

She was shocked. "What!? But… I need to be able to walk! We can't stop now, we just started searching, and you shouldn't go alone—"

"Enough of that. I didn't say we were quitting, I said you couldn't walk. There's a difference."

She started to say something, then seemed to realize what he was saying. "What are you proposing, then?"

In response he slung her arm around his shoulders and stood, forcing her to rise and supporting the weight her bad ankle would normally carry.

"No way. I am _not_ going through these woods like this!"

His face was perfectly straight. "It's this or be carried. Your choice."

She stared at him for a moment, then proceeded to curse him using every foul word she knew. He was vaguely impressed by her repertoire—normally you didn't hear girls like her saying the words she was so freely using. And so he allowed her to continue until she started repeating herself, then gently stopped her. "We both know that that won't do any good, so you might as well stop. This is just until we get out of the deep woods to a place we can stop."

"Well, let's get going, then. The sooner this is over with, the better."

Edward complied, and soon they were heading through the woods at a snail's pace, stopping often.

~*~*~

Finally towards the end of the day they found a small clearing, just big enough for their purposes. It was about time; Sarah had just about had it with being half-carried through the woods. The only thing that had made her allow this was the threat of truly being carried.

Edward gave it a quick once-over, making sure that it was really a good place, and said, "This'll do," leading Sarah over to a fallen tree.

She sat on it with a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness that's over with. I've never been so humiliated in my life."

"What, because you had to be supported by someone else? Hate to break it to you, but that's the way life is sometimes. You can't always go forward alone. Almost always there's someone helping you." His tone was that of someone who had learned that the hard way.

Shocked by his tone, Sarah looked at him sharply. His eyes saw someplace beyond the clearing, gazing into the distance with a bleak expression. She wondered vaguely who had helped him move forward, and what the cost had been.

He turned away and began setting up camp, leaving her with these thoughts. However, they were too serious for her mind to take for any great length of time, so she soon asked, "So, how much longer do you think it will take to find what we're looking for?"

"Well, that depends. You're the one with the map, how big is this forest?"

"Umm, not very. Originally I'd have said we'd be out of here in a week at most, since normally I can cover a fair bit of ground, but…"

He finished the thought for her. "But with your ankle the way it is, we'll move considerably slower. In fact, I'd say we're moving at about half the pace we were originally. That means we'll be here for a while. About two weeks or so, I think."

"That's what I thought."

"So, how's your ankle feel, anyway?" He knelt by her to examine it again.

"A bit better, actually." It was true. The swelling had already gone down, and even though the bruising was colorful, she had seen worse. All in all, it wasn't as bad as it could be, after all.

Edward seemed to think so, too, for he muttered, "This looks better than I thought it would. Maybe you didn't hurt it as bad as it looked."

Then there was silence again. That horrible, uncomfortable silence. Sarah _hated_ silence with a passion.

Apparently so did Edward. "So, do you even know what we're supposed to find?"

"Not really. I was reading some texts which referenced a great secret hidden in a rock in a forest, but I'm not sure what exactly the secret was. It's lucky I traced the likely location to the West Area, much less this forest." It had taken long, hard work to do even that. Not that she regretted it—she loved working with books almost as much as she loved the woods.

"So, we're wandering through the woods aimlessly, looking for a stone that just might exist, that might just lead us to something that just might change the world."

She bristled. "Well, we're not exactly wandering aimlessly. We've been heading due north, with visibility of about five meters each way. In other words, we're cutting across this forest on a relatively straight path. There was a method to which way I led us."

He was mildly shocked, but recovered quickly. "Nice thinking. So, to rephrase, we're cutting systematically through the woods, looking for a stone that just might exist, that might just lead us to something that just might change the world."

"Yeah, pretty much."

He grinned widely. "Exactly my idea of fun."

~*~*~

_The first thing Edward noticed was his right arm. Or rather, his auto-mail. He was dreaming._

_That didn't make the horror of the dream any less real. Knowing he was dreaming didn't work because this had really happened, three years ago._

_He was fighting the Father of the homunculi and his allies with his brother Alphonse and his teacher Izumi. It was a hard fight, but he, Al, and Izumi were not going to die without a fight._

_All of a sudden, almost in slow motion, Envy ran Izumi through. She went down, like most of the homunculi already had._

_Edward ran to his teacher's side, hoping she would be okay and at the same time knowing she probably wouldn't recover._

_She was in bad shape, bleeding intensely. He could tell she wouldn't be alive much longer._

_She struggled to rise. Edward tried to stop her, but it appeared she still had some of her formidable strength yet. "Ed?"_

"_What? What is it?"_

_She took a deep breath. "You said that inside Envy there was a Philosopher's Stone?"_

_He stared at her in shock, instantly aware of what she intended to do. "No! I can't let you do that!"_

"_Fool! I know I'm dying. The least I can do for you is secure the one thing we know can make you two whole again before I go."_

_Just the idea of letting his teacher do such a thing was too much for Edward to handle. It was a suicide mission, trying to get the Stone out of Envy. "But…"_

_Izumi paid him no heed, choosing instead to sneak up behind Envy. Using one of the knives she so frequently had on her, she cut out the Philosopher's Stone just as Envy threw her. She hit a wall hard. Edward heard cracking noises as he ran to her side, ignoring the dying homunculus._

_In the last moment Edward saw his teacher alive, she smiled at him, held up the Stone, and called him a fool one last time. "See? I told you I could do it."_

_Edward couldn't help but smile at his teacher's choice of parting words, even as tears fell down his face._

~*~*~

Sarah was awake and had been for a while. It was infuriating, how she could never sleep the first night after injuring herself. Yes, she knew. She had hurting herself down to a science. Not that she tried to hurt herself or anything—it just happened. She was naturally clumsy, and clumsy people got hurt.

After a round of cursing herself yet again, she looked over at Edward. Of course he was sleeping soundly. Life hated her.

He looked so much younger when he was asleep. Awake, it was impossible to tell that they were nearly the same age, but she was reminded of that, watching him sleep.

But he didn't seem to be enjoying sleep at all. Whatever he was dreaming about, it wasn't pleasant in the least. Or maybe he was just uncomfortable? That happened sometimes.

All of a sudden he jerked awake, sitting upright almost instantly, breathing heavily.

She didn't know what was wrong. But she didn't need to know. All she needed to know was that something was horribly wrong. Something was bothering Edward quite a bit.

And so, ignoring the protests from her ankle, she limped over to him and knelt beside him, holding him as he recovered, comforting him the only way she knew how.

That wasn't surprising in the least. It was in her nature. What was surprising to her was that he let her. Whatever was wrong, it must have truly bothered him.

Whatever was wrong, he soon seemed to recover, for his breathing evened out. He was asleep again. With a small smile, Sarah limped back to her fallen tree and tried to get a little sleep herself.

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Yay! And another chapter, despite the cruel fates trying to keep Ember from posting!

This is just about the saddest thing Ember had written to that point, like ever in any other work. So while she feels sad that it had to be done, hopefully the whole sadness thing comes across?

Yes, Ember had originally planned on stopping at the end of the dream sequence. But that was just wrong, and maybe a few of you would have killed her. Rags to Riches most certainly would have.

Here's to you all, all you who read and especially those of you who have reviewed/will review. Know that Ember loves you all and would marry you all if a) she could and b) she wasn't taken (by Rags to Riches, incidentally. She has Ember's spleen and has already eaten her soul. Plus they're married four times and will soon celebrate... aww, whatever the hell anniversary it is (Please don't kill me, Rags to Riches!!! :( ).).

So long!

Ember and Rags to Riches—the mutant penguins are covering the world with Ember's germs. Go biological warfare!


	4. Chapter 4

Ha! Here comes chapter 4! Even though Ember wrote the whole thing before posting it, she never thought the story would make it this far… she was pretty much convinced the whole thing would flop.

Kuchaki—YOU CAME BACK TOO!!! Ember loves you. 3 And she's glad it seemed realistic. Originally she had written the whole thing, realized the dream sequence was really screwy when it came to any type of canon whatsoever, and scrapped it. She HATES rewriting of any sort, so she's really glad it was worth it.

Aigyou—heehee you have been trapped… Sarah's ankle is sprained. It just so happened that Ember is taking a sports medicine class, so she's totally nerding out with all the injuries that take place in this. So if the name's neglected it's because she was feeling particularly nerdy. And yes… let us talk, by all means. It sounds fascinating to both Ember and Rags to Riches.

And now…

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 4

When Edward woke up, Sarah was already awake and looked like she had been for a while. "Did you get _any_ sleep?"

The look she gave him told him she hadn't. "No. I never do when I hurt myself like this."

"You've done this before? Why am I not surprised?" he murmured as he examined her ankle again before they set out. He was shocked by what he found.

Her ankle was far worse than it had been. It was more swollen and the bruising had started to spread and get more colorful.

Sure, injuries looked worse before they looked better, but this was too much. She had done something to it. And then it hit him.

When he had fallen asleep, she had been by the fallen tree. And then she had come to his side when he woke from his nightmare. _She had walked on her bad ankle_. "You idiot! You hurt it again, and for what!?"

That hurt her. He could tell from her face. "There was something wrong. You were worried."

"Idiot! No dream of mine is more important than you focusing on making sure you _don't _hurt this ankle any worse than you already have!"

That was far too much for her. Tears started rolling down her face as she yelled, "Don't you get it!? I don't care about my ankle, I've had worse! What mattered to me was that a friend was troubled, was hurting!" And she stood and limped away into the woods, leaving Edward stunned.

~*~*~

Sarah moved into the woods as fast as she could, which was considerably slowly. It didn't matter. She needed to get away. She just couldn't take it.

He honestly thought she had been acting stupidly. Either he thought he was worthless or he thought she was foolish by nature. And she couldn't stand either option.

Edward was by no means worthless. He was the Fullmetal Alchemist, for crying out loud! He was probably the strongest alchemist alive.

And she knew she was naïve, but she refused to believe it was wrong to put others first. If someone was hurting, it didn't matter what happened to her, as long as she could help. That was how she felt and had felt for a long time.

Just as she had reached her limit, her ankle had reached its limit. She couldn't go any farther, and collapsed where she was, crying even harder out of frustration.

She couldn't go on. Just a couple of days into this and she had both hurt herself and gotten into a fight with her companion. It was a shame, they had been getting along so well, and Sarah was a sensitive person. When others felt bad, she did too. Which had led into this whole mess.

Thinking herself in circles, she finally cried herself into a fitful sleep, both wishing that Edward would find her and hoping he wouldn't see her like this.

~*~*~

Edward ran through the woods in the direction Sarah had gone. He had to find her; it couldn't be good for her ankle to run off like that. Also, he couldn't help but feel guilty whenever he remembered her face as she ran off.

"_What mattered to me was that a friend was troubled, was hurting!"_ Her final words played in his head like a broken record. And they made him feel even worse.

He still didn't approve of what she had done. But now that he understood why, it was hard for him to blame her for it. And so he kept searching through the woods. She couldn't have gone far.

Sure enough, there she was, curled into a ball on the ground.

Edward approached her slowly, afraid of her reaction if he was too careless. "Sarah?" he whispered.

There was no response, so Ed moved a little closer. Either she was really mad at him or she had collapsed.

Her tear-streaked face was calm, her eyes closed. She was asleep. Well, she hadn't slept at all the night before. It was time for her to pay up—her body needed the rest.

But she had to be uncomfortable, lying on the ground like that. Gently, so as not to wake her up, Edward picked her up and carried her back to their campsite.

~*~*~

When Sarah woke up, she was back at the campsite with absolutely no memory of how she had gotten there. "How…?"

Edward was sitting nearby, his back turned. "Listen, no matter how big a fool I make of myself, don't run off like that, OK?"

What was he getting at? Was he trying to apologize for earlier? And that didn't answer the biggest question in her mind—_how had she gotten back to the camp_? "Edward, how did I get back here?"

At this he turned to face her. "You honestly have to ask?"

Realization hit her like a train. He had brought her back. He had gone looking for her and brought her back.

_He had been worried about her_.

She struggled to rise, to go over to him. Of course, he was having none of that. He was by her side in a moment, forcing her to stay seated on her now-familiar fallen tree.

It didn't matter to her. She hugged him, and smiled as he awkwardly returned her hug. "Thanks."

"Not a problem. Just try not to make a habit of it. I don't like running through the woods as a general rule."

She laughed. "Well, you'll be doing a lot of that soon. We have to get moving."

"Oh—here. I found this. You'll have to test it yourself, but I think it'll hold your weight."

The instant she saw what he handed her, she knew he hadn't found it. He had transmuted it. It was a metal staff, much like the one he had created the other day. You didn't just find those in the woods.

However, if he wanted to say he'd found it, she wouldn't contradict him. Instead she stood up, using the staff as a support, and began to walk.

~*~*~

By nightfall they had reached the edge of the forest. Sarah had looked amazed; apparently they were moving much faster than she had believed possible. But that would have been because of Sarah's dogged determination not to let her ankle slow her down, quickly learning what her healing joint could and couldn't take. It truly amazed Edward, how determined she could be.

They had just settled down for the night when someone else came out of the woods. Instantly Edward was on his feet, whipping around to face this newcomer.

He was the plainest person Edward had ever seen. He had nondescript features and was wearing plain clothing. The only thing about him that stood out was the spear he carried in his right hand.

This put Edward on his guard instantly. Not many people walked through this forest, and still fewer would go with spears. "Are you looking for something?" he asked, struggling to be polite.

The man did not waste any effort on niceties. "You two have been walking through this forest. Are you looking for something yourselves?"

At this point Sarah piped up. "Yes, actually, we are. Maybe you could help us?"

"No. You two need to stop looking."

"And if we don't?" Edward asked.

"Then I'll have to kill you."

Sarah sighed. "Really, what _is_ it with people these days? Do something they don't like, they kill you. It's so… _immature_."

Edward instantly saw what she was doing. She was distracting the man as she moved closer, staff firmly in hand.

Well, if that was what she wanted to do, he could help. "I know, really. Why is it, do you think, that harmless discussion died?"

"I don't know. It's such a shame, though."

"Yes, it is. A crying shame."

And then they attacked as one.

Edward grabbed the man's spear and pulled at it, setting him off-balance as Sarah, using the staff as support, kicked out with her good leg. The man went down.

However, he did not stay down, instead choosing to lash out at Edward with his spear, grazing his arm.

Edward looked at the hole in his robe and felt the blood on his arm. "Now, that wasn't nice," he remarked conversationally. Then he stripped off the robe, revealing metal bands he had transmuted to fit around his forearms in case he needed to create a weapon quickly.

Soon the man was not the only one armed with a sharp object. And Edward was quite literally armed. After all, the blade he had created was on his arm.

Sarah evidently knew when to stay back, as she faded into the background. That was fine by Edward—the man didn't know what he had coming. He really seemed quite inexperienced compared to enemies Edward had faced in the past. He would pay for wasting their time like this.

As the man attacked with his spear again, Edward ducked under it and sliced the spear in half, and then the fight turned into a brief contest of hand-to-hand skill.

The man was big and used his superior height and weight to his advantage, but Edward was faster and knew quite a few tricks. Soon the strange man was on the ground with Edward crouched on his chest and the sharp half of his own spear at his throat.

Still conversational, Edward cheerfully said, "Now, I'd appreciate it if you'd stop attacking us. It's not doing any good. In fact, all it's doing is getting you hurt and wasting our time."

The man growled a few curses.

"Come, now. That doesn't sound like agreement at all." Edward's smile turned icy. "Unless you really _want _to get hurt."

The man growled, threw Edward off of him, and stalked back into the forest.

Soon Sarah was at his side, briefly checking him over for injuries caused when he was thrown and calmly examining the scratch the man's spear had given his arm. "This isn't too bad, all things considered. He could have done a lot worse. It seems pretty clean, and it's really shallow. In fact, it's already stopped bleeding."

"So when did you learn all this, from everything you've probably done to yourself?" Edward was genuinely curious.

"No. Well, not all of it. First aid is fascinating, and there are so many books on it. It wasn't really that hard to learn. Oh, and what are _these_?" She indicated the metal bands around his forearms. "I've never seen them before."

"They're an idea I had shortly after I got my arm back."

"Explain."

"See, in a pinch I would always transmute my auto-mail arm into a weapon. So if I was ever in trouble, I would probably instinctively go to transmute my arm. However, transmuting my real arm wouldn't work very well, so I came up with the idea of putting these metal bands on my arms. That way I don't hurt myself _and_ I have a quick source of metal to transmute."

"It's a clever idea."

"Thank you. Oh, something's been bothering me since that man left."

"Really? What?" She looked mildly concerned.

"He growled at me. I mean, he actually _growled_ at me. Who does that?"

She laughed. "I'm sure I don't know."

"Exactly. He's more immature than I'd previously thought. But his coming here tells us three things."

"Really? Care to share with the class?"

Edward grinned. "You honestly don't see it?"

"I think I do, but I want to make sure we're on the same page here."

"Whatever. And you don't know."

She looked affronted. "And what makes you think that?"

"Just your personality. If you had known, you wouldn't have wasted a second. You'd have already talked my ear off."

If looks could kill, Edward was sure he'd be critically injured at the least. The glare she was giving him now was priceless. He hurried to explain, before she actually _did_ kill him. "Anyway, it tells us three things. One, whatever we're looking for really exists."

"How does it tell you _that_!?"

He held up a hand to silence her. "Just give me a moment. Two, whatever we're looking for is in this forest."

"Really!? I _knew_ it had to be!"

"Are you going to let me finish?"

"No, I can guess the third now."

"Care to enlighten me?"

Sarah smiled, a predator's icy grin. "Sure. Three, we came close enough to it to scare him. So it's nearby."

Edward returned her grin. "Exactly."

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Oh dear, the action is coming to a head. Soon we'll all be killing each other… maybe. Maybe not, though. XD. Ember likes being mysterious like that.

If you liked, didn't like, think Ember's characterization of Ed is totally way off, or would like to rant about your cat waking you up at 2:30 in the morning as your younger sibling runs down the hall screaming "DADDY!!" (not fun. Ember knows.) then say so in your REVIEW. Please. Ember, as a result of sleep deprivation in the form of the scenario she just recently described, is currently incapable of reading your mind. It just won't work. She tried. All she got was "kitty?".

Ember and Rags to Riches—the mutant penguins. Mwahaha.


	5. Chapter 5

Whee, chapter 5. Ember's kind of on a natural high today. It was a really good day for her, finding out that one of her poems will be published in her school literary magazine (yes, she writes stuff other than fanfiction. Is that really all that surprising?). So yeah. She's really happy right now.

Incidentally, she'd also like to take the opportunity to announce her fifth engagement to Rags to Riches. The two are currently very happy and looking forward to a long engagement because they can't remember any of the other four (just the weddings).

v i t a l e t u m: Did you go and change names on Ember? Oh dear, she's horrible with names. At least the name's in print form. In any case, thanks once again for your kind review. Maybe when Rags to Riches and Ember take over the world they'll let you have a role in it. XD And Ember's happy you like the metal bands idea—she wasn't sure how well that'd go over.

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 5

They woke up the a few days later with increased determination. They were close to reaching their goal. They could feel it, somehow. There was a tangible feel to the air, the kind of feeling that comes when something is about to happen.

Sarah especially could feel it as she began stretching, gently working her ankle. It didn't hurt nearly as much as it had before. Wonderingly, she examined it. The bruising was still there, but it was much lighter, more faded than it had been even the day before.

Very, very carefully, she put a little more weight on it than usual, gently increasing the pressure she put on it. The ankle stung, but it held. She could run now, if she had to.

Excited by this latest development, she shouted, "Edward!"

"Yeah?" He looked groggy, as he generally did when just waking up.

"Look!"

Edward looked, and his eyes widened as he saw her running around and jumping. "What on earth are you doing!?"

"I can run now! It still hurts a little, but it's much better than it had been!"

"That's good. Still, you should be careful. You don't want to hurt it again."

"I will be," she replied earnestly.

Edward snorted. "Somehow I don't trust that, coming from you."

She mocked an affronted look. "What? Me, lie to you? I'm offended!"

He grinned. "No, it's not that you're lying. It's just that you'll probably do something stupid like trip over a root."

He was right. She did tend to do things like that. "Don't jinx me! I've been doing fine so far, with one exception."

"It's the one exception that concerns me."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Let's get moving."

And so they began to move through the forest again. After a while, however, Edward suddenly stopped short.

Sarah noticed instantly and turned to face him. "What is it?" she asked, inexplicably tense after the episode of the night before.

However, his face did not show anxiety. He was merely puzzled and vaguely amused by something. Then she realized something. His outfit seemed much more _blue_ than usual.

All of a sudden she looked down. Her robe was red.

Understanding, she laughed. In the general grogginess of waking up that morning, they had switched robes.

Soon they were both laughing harder than they had in a while. Finally, as they began to catch their breaths, Edward asked, "So, am I getting my robe back any time soon?"

Sarah smiled as she clutched the slightly overlarge robe closer to her. "Nope. I happen to like it. I think I'll keep it."

Edward sighed and shook his head, but he was grinning. "Well, in that case, I think I'll just have to keep yours. Equivalent exchange, you know."

Sarah laughed and shrugged, then trotted off deeper into the woods, Edward following behind. They both grew more excited as the day went on, knowing that with every step they were getting closer to their goal, but they also grew tenser and words were few. This infuriated the normally talkative Sarah to no end, but she didn't want to be the one to break the silence. Not when she was this anxious about what was to come.

~*~*~

As soon as they made camp that night Sarah fell asleep. Edward saw this for what it was—an opportunity to get his robe back. So he found it lying on the ground and switched it for Sarah's own blue robe, then crept back to the patch of grass he was sleeping on.

However, sleep was evading him. He couldn't stop thinking about what had happened and what was to come. It worried him that at least one person had attacked them to try and get them to stop their search, but he was afraid there was worse to come.

Finally, he gave up on sleep and stood. Maybe a walk in the woods would clear his head enough to let him rest a little.

Before he left the campsite, he briefly looked back at Sarah. Her face was full of the peace that came with deep sleep. She wouldn't wake up before he got back. And so he left, the tiniest of smiles on his face.

Little did Edward know that this would be one of his worst mistakes on this trip.

~*~*~

Quietly a group of men split in two in the forest. Half of their group would trail the Fullmetal Alchemist, attacking at the opportune moment, while the other half would deal with the Earthen Alchemist.

Their leader had ordered them to make the two alchemists leave the forest or to kill them. He really didn't care which. All he required was that they never reach their goal, for that was to be protected at all costs.

The men who were to deal with the Earthen Alchemist grinned widely as they crept up on her. This was going to be easy—she was fast asleep and had no idea of the painful death that was coming to her.

~*~*~

Fortunately for Sarah, she had woken up shortly after Edward had left the campsite. Knowing that he was probably having problems sleeping and that he would return, she tried to go back to sleep, but could not.

Then she heard footsteps in the woods. More footsteps than one person could possibly make. She feigned sleep, knowing that she would be harder to spot, but she was tense, ready for anything after being attacked once.

When the footsteps stopped too close to her for comfort she snapped upright, holding the staff Edward had given her firmly in both hands.

A group of four men armed with knives and, for two of them, spears, had formed a loose half-circle around her with a tree at her back.

_This isn't good!_ Sarah thought. _I don't know how to fight!_

But then she remembered. She _did_ know how to fight, or at least hold them off for a while. Edward had taught her a few tricks at the start of their journey, before she had hurt her ankle. First, she had to make sure they stayed well away from her so she could deal with them on _her_ terms.

She swung the staff around her, forcing the men to stay at least that far away, and backed towards the tree so no one could sneak up behind her.

One of the men with knives came toward her. She was almost paralyzed with fear—she had never had to deal with armed people.

But she could still move. She kicked out, slamming the heel of her sturdy shoe into the man's wrist. He dropped his knife, swearing, and bent to pick it up.

Sarah wasn't having any of that. She had only just disarmed him, and she didn't want all that hard work to go to waste. Her next kick slammed into his chin, forcing him to straighten back up. Growling, he came towards her.

She kicked out one last time, and soon he was on the ground, swearing in pain.

The other men were more wary, and when one finally approached, it was a spear he wielded.

That wasn't too serious a problem. He wasn't the only one with a long weapon. And hers was made of metal, while his, though sharper, was mostly wooden.

However, he had more experience with fighting and soon was about to overpower her. He knocked her staff out of her hands and moved closer. But he had forgotten one crucial detail. His spear was made out of wood, and she was the Earthen Alchemist. Plus, while she was afraid to transmute without a circle, she was more afraid of what would happen if she didn't in this case.

She clapped a hand on either side of the spear as he swung it toward her, and it bent back towards her attacker. The spear was useless.

However, this man was bigger than the previous one. Bigger, and stronger. He was sure to overpower her in hand to hand combat if she couldn't keep him away.

Knowing her arms were weak, Sarah didn't bother with trying to hit or punch the man. However, her legs were strong from all the hiking she did, and she used them, kicking out furiously, trying as hard as she could to keep the man from being able to use his advantage of height and weight.

As hard as she was fighting, she knew she would wear out soon, or get hurt. She could only hope that either the men gave up or Edward returned before that happened.

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Oh dear, the action has begun. As much as Ember hates reading cliffhangers, she loves writing them. But please don't kill her? If you do, you won't find out what happens!

Incidentally, she kinda forgot that's where she put the chapter break. She wrote this all and hasn't seen from this chapter on in about a month. Yeah. She's kind of working on other stories right now as she goes. But she did look at this before posting and change the timeline a little because what was there before was just absurd. It wouldn't have worked. So she really does give it a final checking-over before posting, honest!

Ember and Rags to Riches—the mutant penguins will kill you with suspense! Ish. Kind of.


	6. Chapter 6

SORRY SORRY SORRY!!! Ember's a day late. She REALLY meant to post this yesterday... it just didn't work out. She's also sorry for the cliffie... kinda.

Insanity Is Iminent-- YAY! Thank you very much for your kind review! As for the rock... lol. It was supposed to drive people insane. Especially Sarah. Because she's a researcher, and hates not knowing much about what it is. Or rather, the secret it contains. The rock is... just that. A rock. But soon...

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 6

While Sarah was fending off her attackers, Edward was dealing with four men himself. However, his fight was much easier than Sarah's because of his greater experience, and soon the four men were on the ground, unconscious.

At first he relaxed a little, but then he grew even tenser than he had been before the attack. Four men had attacked him. In all likelihood, if he had been attacked, there were others after Sarah.

And she was conveniently asleep in their campsite.

Edward muttered a string of curses and sprinted back to the campsite, hoping he was wrong and no one else was there.

Of course, he was right. There were four men there, too. However, one was already down and Sarah was dealing fairly well with the other, kicking out to keep him from getting close enough to do severe damage to her. Her staff was lying on the ground, presumably forgotten, next to a spear that had been bent out of shape, and a forming bruise on her face and more on her arms was a testament to a hard fight.

However, while she was doing well, she was only able to hold him off. If she tried to attack, he would use his superior strength to defeat her. She was probably already tiring. She needed help—the sooner, the better.

And so Edward crept up behind the remaining two men, dispatching them with quick, precise blows.

Before he could turn to help Sarah with her current attacker, she screamed. Whipping around, he noticed that the man had grabbed her arms and pinned her to the nearest tree. Then the two fighting noticed that someone else had arrived, and the man who had been fighting Sarah shifted his attention.

It was the only advantage Sarah needed. Wrenching herself out of his formerly strong grip, she picked up her staff and swung it, connecting solidly with the man's head. He went down and stayed down. Then Sarah collapsed.

Edward was far more concerned about Sarah than he was about her attacker, and so he ignored him and rushed to make sure she was alright. She was out cold, but she wasn't hurt too seriously—just bruises on her arms and a rather spectacular-looking black eye. The fight had drained her, though, and she needed to rest.

Relieved, Edward began packing up their campsite. It was probably a good idea to keep moving, to get away from their attackers in case they regained consciousness before he and Sarah would move out the next morning.

He couldn't carry their gear and Sarah, so he had to wake her up. "Sarah," he whispered, shaking her shoulder gently.

Her eyes snapped open and she kicked out, landing a blow on his shin before she realized who it was. "Oh, I'm sorry!" she whispered. "I thought you were one of them."

"It's okay." He winced, rubbing his shin. "Anyhow, I figured we should leave, even if it isn't morning yet. Those men won't wake up when it's convenient for us."

She nodded, though he could barely see it in the dark, and stood, gathering the things she normally carried and consulting her compass. "We should go that way," she muttered, pointing.

"You can actually read that thing when it's this dark?"

"Yeah. I've read harder things than a compass in the dark before. I guess I have good night vision."

She didn't just have good night vision, she had amazing night vision. He shook his head and began walking in the direction she had indicated. "We'll just go until we find the next place we can camp, alright?"

"Yeah. Oh, and one more thing. You're teaching me to fight when we have time."

"Glad you finally realize that that's important for people like us," Edward commented.

Due to the hour, they said little else as they moved. They were both exhausted after a day of walking through the woods and a night spent fighting. Luckily, though, they soon stumbled upon another clearing, one that was fairly large.

Unluckily, the sun was starting to rise. Sarah groaned and muttered, "I'll never be able to sleep now."

Edward looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"The sun's up," she grumbled. "As soon as the sun comes up, I generally can't go to sleep."

Edward winced. "That sounds bad."

"Oh, it is. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've spent all night researching and then had to stay awake the whole day after, simply because I couldn't sleep." Suddenly she broke off, staring past Edward's shoulder.

Were there more people about to attack them? Edward spun around, but he saw nothing. He faced Sarah again. "What is it?"

Sarah continued to stare, moving slowly towards a boulder in the center of the clearing. She reached the boulder and examined it. "I think we just found it," she replied, half-whispering.

~*~*~

On the boulder Sarah was staring at so intently were markings that she almost hadn't recognized. Then she remembered in her research that she had come across a strange language she hadn't encountered before. This matched the markings used in that language.

This was what they had been looking for, of that she was certain. But what exactly was it? That remained to be seen.

She ran to where she had dropped her pack, exhaustion forgotten, and rummaged for a notebook, a pen, and a dictionary she had created as she decoded the strange new language. That would make translation go so much faster.

She bent over the boulder, slowly deciphering what was written. Edward apparently knew better than to interrupt. This was a delicate stage in the process, and an interruption could destroy her train of thought, forcing her to start from the beginning.

When she finally translated what it said, making sure to write it down in her notebook, she wished she hadn't.

Having noticed that she had finished the translation, Edward asked, "So, what does it say?"

Trying to keep her fear out of her voice, she replied, "One of us has to transmute the stone without using a transmutation circle. Even if we draw one, it won't last long, not on this type of stone, and it warns against trying to draw one around the thing."

"Well, that's easy enough. So what's bothering you?"

"The 'without using a transmutation circle' part."

Edward chuckled. "That's it? You don't like to transmute without drawing the circle?"

Ashamed of her silly fear, Sarah nodded.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you're going to have to transmute this stone. You know far better than I do what the end product is supposed to be, and you're better with transmuting stone than I am anyway."

Sarah stood over the stone, trying to mentally prepare herself for the transmutation.

Suddenly she felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. Edward was behind her, supporting her, lending her strength. Not alchemical strength, but a sort of confidence in herself she hadn't known she possessed. "You can do this," he whispered in her ear. "How hard can it be for the Earthen Alchemist to transmute a stone?"

That kind of sarcastic humor was typical of him, she had learned. He just wanted her to believe she could do this. And it was working. Filled with a newfound strength and confidence, Sarah clapped her hands together and touched the stone. The transmutation began.

~*~*~

As Edward watched over Sarah's shoulder, the boulder became sand and slid down a set of stairs that had been hidden under it.

Whatever they had come here for was waiting for them at the end of those stairs.

Slowly, but without any hesitation whatsoever, Edward and Sarah went down the stairs and found a small room bare of everything except a small table with an old book on it.

Sarah continued on to the table, where she examined the book. "This will take a long time to translate, but I think this is what we came for."

"No, it can't be. It's not like there's nothing else here," Ed muttered sarcastically, but he too was excited that they had found what they were looking for.

Together they went back up the stairs and Sarah transmuted the pile of sand back into a boulder that looked exactly as it had when they arrived. "Your attention to detail is amazing," he commented.

"What can I say? It comes to you when you spend most of your time poring over musty old books trying to make connections between vague references here and there," she said, slightly pink in the face, as she gently put her notebooks and the book they had taken from the room in her pack.

They had spent longer than he had thought in that room. The sun was almost directly overhead, from what he could see through the trees. "We should probably keep moving. If we keep going in the same direction we came to get here, how quickly can we be out of this forest?"

"Um, I think we can be out of here by the end of two days if we move fast enough. It's not like we're moving slowly, searching through every clearing anymore."

"Let's get going, then. The less time we spend here, the better."

"Agreed." And they moved out, walking faster and talking now that they had reached their goal, moving much as they had at the start of the journey, except for the addition of sparring every morning. Like at the start of their journey, time seemed to fly, and all too soon they were out of the forest and walking back toward the train station. Sarah had underestimated their determination to leave the forest—they had reached the station, not the edge of the forest, by twilight.

Suddenly an idea came to Edward. "Sarah?"

She turned to him. "Yes?"

"While I'm out of Central, do you mind if we pay a visit to my brother? I haven't actually seen him in a while, and I think I should. After all, I don't know when I'll be out of Central again."

"Of course! You said he was in Risembool, right?"

Edward was stunned at her memory. "You remember that? I think I only mentioned it once in passing."

"Of course. You never know what you'll need to remember one day, so I try to remember everything I can. Anyway, that's in the East Area, right? Let's go!"

And so, instead of going to Central and staying there, after the night-long ride to Central they snuck onto a train bound for the East Area.

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Heehee. Sarah got a rock. Or rather, a musty old book that was inside a rock. But that just doesn't have the same ring to it as the line from that Charlie Brown Halloween special that always finds its way into Ember's life somehow... "I got a rock."

Ember's just a little bit hyped up on sugar right now... in case the world couldn't tell.

In any case, the next chapter? Total authoress gratification with minimal action action. Just the fun stuff XD. Just as a warning. It's a long one, too... *examines* Wow.

And Ember won't be LATE next time, either. Oh how she hated herself for that... But please review anyway, even if you hate her too?

Ember and Rags to Riches--the mutant penguins, as an engagement present to each other, have made the first moves in taking over the WORLD using an army of sporks. Fear us. Or love us. We really don't care which.

PS. Rags to Riches says if you try to fight against us you'll be roasted in a bonfire on a beach in late August. Violent, isn't she?


	7. Chapter 7

WAHHHHHH! EMBER IS SOO SORRY!!!!

Right after she promised not to be late with updating again, she promptly missed TWO post dates! URGH.

Please don't kill her, though. Both chapters are going up right now. And this one is a nice break from any action that may or may not have been noticed. It's pure authoress gratification and a sad excuse to get Sarah to wear a dress.

SORRYYYYY!!!! *runs away before anyone can kill her*

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 7

The next day they arrived in Risembool. The instant they arrived, Sarah noticed a blonde young woman walking with a young man who bore a vague resemblance to Edward.

All of a sudden the young woman looked directly at them, her eyes widening when they saw Edward. "Ed!? Is that you!?"

Ed muttered, "Is that…" before the young woman ran over to him and hugged him ferociously.

"Ed! It _is_ you! I thought it was, but you've gotten taller, so I wasn't sure for a second. Oh, and _this_ is for staying away from your poor brother for three years!" she shouted, hitting him over the head with a wrench.

"Yep, that's Winry," he muttered as he rubbed his head. "Do you think you could have passed up on hitting me? I think I've gone through enough abuse for a while. And it wasn't my fault the general kept me in Central," he grumbled, hugging the young man. "Al! Sorry it's been so long!"

"It's okay, big brother. I take it Roy wanted you as close to the government as possible?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Oh, meet my ticket out of Central. Winry, Al, this is Sarah. She's another State Alchemist, and her research is what got me out of Central. Then she was kind enough to let me come here."

Instantly Sarah found herself swept up in introductions. His friend Winry was particularly energetic. His brother, on the other hand, was soft-spoken and reminded her of Ed's serious side. Despite that resemblance, however, he was smiling. So he was just naturally quiet.

After introductions were over with, Al asked Winry, "Do you think we should show them…?"

Winry nodded. "We were going to tell you about this when it was finished, but there's no way we can hide it, since you're here. So, come on!" And she walked off, the others following her.

When, according to Winry, they were nearing their destination, Edward stopped short, staring at a half-constructed building.

Sarah turned to look at him. "What is it?"

Ed didn't stop looking at the house that was in construction. "Is that…?"

Winry smiled, and Al replied, "It is."

Ed was stunned. "You're…?"

Winry had had enough by this point. "Yes, Ed. We're rebuilding your old house."

~*~*~

Ed was stunned. He had never thought about rebuilding the house later as he burned it to the ground. But Al apparently had, and soon the Elric brothers would have a home.

Al saw the surprised look on his face and went to hug his brother. Soon Winry joined in and a once-familiar sight of a group hug was seen once again.

After a few moments, Ed looked at Sarah standing off to one side smiling slightly and waved her over. "You're not staying out of this one—if you do I think Winry would be horribly offended."

She laughed and said, "And if I do stay out of it?"

"Then I may just have to make this group do a group waddle over to you so we can group tackle you."

"While that would be a sight to see, I think I'll pass on being tackled," she retorted, and came to join in the group hug.

All too soon the group hug broke apart and Winry exclaimed, "Oh, I almost forgot to tell them!"

Al said, "You'd better get on it, then."

Edward was instantly suspicious. He didn't exactly like the grin on Winry's face. "Tell us what?"

Winry spoke fast. "Well, there's a town dance tonight, and Al and I were going to go, but I don't think we should leave you two out. Oh, I know! Maybe the two of you should go together!"

If Al had planned on going, it was news to him. Edward could tell. However, the surprise soon cleared from his face and realization took its place. "Yeah, you should. We could all go, and it'd be lots of fun!"

After the first few moments of shock, both Edward and Sarah began protesting. However, Sarah then said, "You know, maybe we should."

Edward stared at her in shock. "All right, but any particular reason?"

"Yeah. We were just saying we couldn't. I hate the thought of being unable to do something. So we're going."

Edward grinned. That logic was so like Sarah. So it was settled, then, and he was going to a dance. With Sarah. The thought was a very uncomfortable one, but there was nothing he could do about it.

~*~*~

Sarah soon found herself being dragged by Winry into her house. As they went up the stairs, Winry was overflowing with excitement. "I can't believe he actually agreed! I mean, I was sure he would, but I thought it would take more than that! Anyhow, we need to find you something to wear!"

Sarah was instantly wary. She hated dressing up, and she wasn't sure exactly what Winry was planning on making her wear.

If Winry noticed her wariness, she didn't pay any attention to it, turning instead to rummage through her closet. "Hmm… no… that wouldn't do…" Then she seemed to find something. "Ah! Here we are!"

She emerged from the closet holding up a plain green sundress. "This would go great with your eyes!"

Sarah looked critically at the shoulders, or rather, of the lack thereof. The dress was sleeveless.

Winry noticed this shortly thereafter, for she said, "Oh! There aren't any sleeves! It could get a bit chilly tonight, but this dress would look so good on you… Hey! I have an idea!" And she continued rummaging through her closet, eventually producing a short-sleeved white button-down shirt. "This should look okay with it, and you'll be a little warmer! Now try it on!" She walked out of the room and closed the door, presumably to give her a little privacy while changing.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to get out of it, Sarah reluctantly put on the outfit Winry had put together. It was actually pretty comfortable. The clothes looked good, but they were sensible—exactly what Sarah herself would have looked for.

Winry came in, interrupting her thoughts. "Oh, I was right! That does look good on you! And I have a pair of shoes that will go with it!"

Sarah groaned. Shoes. They would probably have ridiculous heels, the kind you could barely walk in.

However, she had once again underestimated Winry; the sandals she produced were perfectly sensible and safely flat to the ground. However, they were also made to look good—a pair of white ribbons dangled from the heel of each, and were presumably meant to wind up her shins before being tied. They looked good, they were comfortable, and they were designed for people like her—people who could trip over just about anything.

Winry was talking again. "Oh, and I'll have to show you how this one dance goes, everyone's expected to do it."

"I have to dance?"

"Well, isn't that the point of going to a dance?"

"Yes, but—"

"Oh, I get it. You're worried you'll trip or something and make a fool out of yourself."

"Yeah, pretty much," Sarah replied, shamefaced.

Winry laughed, but it wasn't meant to make her feel bad. "Do you really think any of us will care? Well, we won't. Especially Ed. I think it would mean a lot to him if you just tried. It wouldn't matter how stupid you think you'd look."

She would have kept refusing, but it was pointless. "All right."

"Okay, the basic part of it is stepping like this," she said, doing three quick steps to the right, then back to the left. Sarah repeated it flawlessly.

"Good job. You'll be doing that most of the time. Now, your partner, in this case me, will be holding your hands like this," and Winry gently clasped each of Sarah's hands. "Your hands will tell you what's coming next. For example, if he drops one of your hands and lifts the other—" here she demonstrated—"that means you spin under the arms that are raised." Sarah did as Winry told her to and spun under their raised arms. Her dance lessons continued for most of the afternoon, with Sarah growing more and more confident in her abilities. After all, it was fairly simple. It didn't hurt that Sarah loved to dance, either.

~*~*~

"Remind me again why I'm doing this?" Edward asked his brother as he hunted down a white shirt.

"Because Sarah asked you to and because Winry came up with the idea," his brother replied instantly.

"Oh, that reminds me. You weren't really going to go until we got here, were you?"

Alphonse fidgeted. Ed guessed he didn't want to tell the truth, but he didn't want to lie to his brother. Finally, he said, "No, we weren't."

"Great. So Winry's got it into her head that I need to get out more often, and so decided to play matchmaker!"

"Pretty much." Al was shamefaced at his friend's antics.

Edward groaned. "Great. Just great. This is _exactly_ what I needed!" he muttered.

"Sarcasm won't do anything, big brother."

"No, I know it won't. The best thing to do is just get this over with, then find some way to exact revenge." He finally found the shirt he'd been looking for and began to put it on.

Al looked concerned at his last remark. "Please don't use your usual methods of revenge?"

"Oh, don't worry. This deserves something special," Edward reassured him as he went to find Winry. He made it as far as the main room when he heard footsteps. Winry was coming down the stairs.

She noticed he was there at the same time he noticed she was on the stairs. "Ed, there you are! I was about to go looking for you," she exclaimed. "Sarah, get down here!" she shouted up the stairs. "No, don't hide around the corner like that. I'll go up there and drag you down," she threatened.

"No need. I'll come on my own, thanks." Why did Sarah sound so nervous?

Just after he thought that, Sarah came down the stairs, looking absolutely gorgeous in a green dress with a white shirt over it. She certainly looked the part of the Earthen Alchemist—it was like looking at a wood sprite, or something of that sort, out of the old tales that Edward had stopped believing in so long ago.

~*~*~

Despite Sarah's former nerves, she was actually enjoying herself. For the most part, the four of them simply stood to one side, chatting. She had rarely spent time like this. She really needed to get out of her research more, if nights spent like this were that good. Or maybe it was the company she was keeping that made her so happy, but she barely thought about that before shoving it out of her mind.

As another song started, Winry shoved Sarah and Edward out onto the dance floor. "Go! Dance! Have fun!"

Sarah looked back at her helplessly.

Winry grinned at her. "It's that one I showed you, don't worry!" she said, and grabbed Al. "Come on, you're dancing with me."

Sarah looked back at Edward, her prior nerves coming back with a vengeance. "Come on. I didn't spend all afternoon tripping over my feet for nothing," she declared, and they began to dance.

Edward laughed. "So that's where Winry dragged you off to. I'd wondered about that."

"Yeah. She wouldn't let me off the hook. You should have seen her face when I suggested not dancing. It was almost like it would be a personal offense."

"That sounds like Winry, all right. Once she puts her mind to something, it gets done." They spent the next few moments dancing in silence, until Sarah began to stumble.

Edward apparently saw the problem immediately. "You're looking at your feet. Don't do that, it'll only make you worry more about tripping."

Sarah just couldn't bring herself to tear her gaze off the floor. She was feeling a little strange, somehow quivery and happy and sad all at the same time, and this seemed to magnify whenever she looked at Edward.

Edward noticed that she was adamant on staring at the floor, and during a spin he reached out and forced her to look up at him. "Come on, it can't be _that_ hard to look at me after the past couple of weeks. I don't think I've done anything to deserve that."

Sarah laughed somewhat nervously, and they continued to dance.

As the song began to end, Edward broke the silence between them again. "Thank you."

Sarah grinned. "For what, dancing with you or agreeing to come out here in the first place?"

Edward smiled at her. "Both." And as the song ended, he spun her around one last time before pulling her into an embrace.

~*~*~

From where she and Al stood after the dance ended, Winry could see Ed and Sarah, and she watched them carefully. She smiled as Ed embraced Sarah, and that smile grew even wider as she saw Sarah place her arms around Ed's neck. "Al?" she commented.

"Yeah?"

"Take a look at this."

Al looked in the direction she indicated. "You think…?"

"Yes, I do think. But that's beside the point, don't you agree? There are more important things right now than whether or not I think."

Al sighed. "But you think…?"

It was Winry's turn to sigh. "Yes, I do. If I hadn't, we wouldn't be here, remember?"

"Speaking of which, Ed knows you're up to something."

"Meaning you told him."

Al fidgeted.

"It's okay, I know you two don't keep anything from each other. So he knows. So what? I don't think he cares right now. He seems rather… occupied."

"That he does." The two watched Ed and Sarah walk away into the setting sun.

A wicked grin appeared on Winry's face. "Think we should follow them?"

"No. Give them some time alone."

"You're probably right," Winry sighed. "How long do you think they'll stay?"

"Not long. Ed said they snuck out of Central to get here. That means they'll be missed if they stay too long. In fact, knowing Ed, he's probably on his way out of here right now, to avoid saying good-bye."

"Ed would do that. But this Sarah seems like a nice girl; she won't leave without saying good-bye. She won't let Ed leave like that either." Winry was sure of that. Sarah had seemed quiet, but polite. Combined with the influence she seemed to have on Ed, her personality would make sure they at least said they were leaving.

~*~*~

"We should probably leave soon," Edward admitted.

"Yeah. In all likelihood someone saw us sneak out of Central, and they'll want to know why. It would only make it worse to stay."

Even though he knew he had to return, that was the last thing Edward wanted at that moment. He wanted to stay in Resembool with everyone. But duty called, and he had to go to Central again.

He and Sarah began walking in the direction of Winry's house. Sarah said she had to return Winry's dress, adding, "And I'll write her a note saying good-bye. The sooner we leave, the better, and that saves us from farewells. I never do well with those."

Edward was fine with that. He wouldn't have even left the note. They would have known he was gone and that he'd come back when he could.

When they reached Winry's house, Sarah ran up the stairs. Edward waited for her in the main room, trying to convince himself that they really did need to return to Central. It wasn't working.

Finally Sarah ran down the stairs in her usual clothing, and wordlessly they left Risembool as the sun sank below the horizon.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Once again, please don't kill Ember for her incurable tardiness.

Well, like she said, it was a sad excuse to get Sarah into both a dress and Edward's arms. Oh, what we all wouldn't give to have that opportunity... yum.

In any case, before Ember goes even more delusional, please review. Please. Even though she was a horrible authoress for making people wait so long.

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins


	8. Chapter 8

Erm... Ember thinks she pretty much covered it with the last authoress' note. Please don't kill her.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 8

When Sarah and Edward arrived at Central, they went into a room that served Edward as a study.

Edward asked, "So, which of us gets the honor of reporting what we found to our dear General Mustang?"

"I'll do it," Sarah replied absentmindedly. Her mind was on other things, things that saddened her. In all likelihood this would be the last she saw of Edward. Roy would likely order her to some far-off lab or other location to translate the book they had found, and with Edward's prolonged stay at Central likely to continue, it would be months at least before they saw each other. She would miss him. He was one of the best traveling companions she had ever had.

Edward interrupted her thoughts. "What are you thinking about? You look… I don't know, depressed or something."

"What? No, I'm just thinking about what to tell Roy. Whether or not to leave out things like tripping over my own feet in the middle of the forest."

"You probably should. It would only worry him, and it's not like it affected anything too much. And I'd gloss over the eight or so men that are bound to be after us, too. Mention them, but don't dwell on it."

"Yeah." What then commenced had to have been one of the most awkward silences in Sarah's memory.

Edward finally said, "That's not what you were thinking about, I can tell. Something's still bothering you."

Sarah hesitated before admitting, "Yeah, there is."

"Care to enlighten me?"

"Well… After I report, Roy will probably send me somewhere far away, and he'll keep you here. We might never see each other again." The thought was painful, but it was a possibility.

"We'll think about that later. In the meantime, you have to report. Even if you do get sent somewhere, there's still a little time. But if you don't report, I shudder to think what the General will do."

Sarah chuckled weakly. "Probably just yell at me. Or maybe throw me off a cliff. You never can tell."

"No, you can't. Which is why you have to report sooner rather than later."

"Yeah." Suddenly Sarah hugged Edward. "If it does happen, if we do get separated, I'll miss you."

Edward wrapped his arms around her. "I'll miss you too."

As she looked at him for potentially the last time, the strange feeling she had noticed back in Resembool returned. However, she also saw it in Edward's eyes. And for the first time, she recognized it for what it was.

It was _love_. She _loved _Edward. And she might never see him again.

Suddenly, acting entirely on impulse, she kissed Edward.

After a moment's hesitation, she felt one of his hands slide to the back of her neck. He was kissing her back!

Finally, after what seemed like far less time than it actually was, Sarah pulled away and said, "Well, I'd better get reporting to Roy. I'll be back!" Then she ran to Roy's office, hoping to get it over with quickly and get back to Edward.

~*~*~

"No! I won't go!"

Roy looked sternly at the clearly distressed Sarah. "That's an order, Sarah. You're going to that lab to research the matter further."

"No! I can't!"

"Why not!?" What was wrong with Sarah? She had never minded research before. Roy couldn't understand what was wrong with her, and that worried him. After all, he did consider her something like a little sister. But he wasn't the type to show concern, so he hid it behind his sternest expression.

"I… I…" She was stumbling, lost for words. He had never seen anything like it before. She must have been truly furious. But why?

Suddenly, tears streaming down her face, she ran out of his office.

Concerned beyond belief, he followed her as she ran through the building to the Fullmetal Alchemist's rooms. Wondering why she was running there, he turned a corner and was greeted with the last sight he had expected to see.

Sarah and the Fullmetal Alchemist were standing in the study of the Fullmetal Alchemist's rooms kissing far more passionately than he would have liked to see. Although he was probably a little biased on that standard; after all, he did consider Sarah a little sister.

Shocked, Roy turned around and quickly walked back to his office. Well, that explained why Sarah was adamant on staying in Central. But orders were orders; they could not be changed. Besides, maybe it was better that the two stay away from each other for a while. The last thing Roy wanted to see was Sarah's heart break, and he wasn't sure that this latest development would last.

~*~*~

Edward wasn't exactly sure what was going on, and he didn't like it one bit. Because whatever was happening, it had clearly distressed Sarah. She had run to his room with tears on her face and launched herself into his arms, refusing to let go for even a moment.

She had also refused to say a word, and when he had asked what was wrong she had only clutched him tighter and begun to cry again. He didn't bring it up after that. The situation was bad enough as it was, even if it killed him that he didn't know what was wrong.

Finally she had fallen asleep on the couch in the room, still refusing to let go of him even in sleep. It was really cute in a way, but it was hard to appreciate that with the tearstains still fresh on her face.

Even though he was incredibly worried about Sarah, he found himself starting to fall asleep. But that was okay. She was, too, so this problem would be dealt with in the morning, whatever it was.

~*~*~

Sarah woke up well before dawn in Edward's arms. For the briefest of moments this made her happy, but then she remembered why she had woken up. She had to leave.

More than anything she wanted to put it off, wait until Edward was awake. But if she did she would never be able to leave. It would hurt too much. Not that it didn't hurt already. No, this was about as much pain as she could take.

Unable to just leave, she looked for a piece of paper and something to write with. Going to his doorway, where there was a little light, she wrote a brief note explaining what was going on and saying goodbye. She left that beside him on his couch.

She was still mostly packed from her trip with Edward. All she needed to do was grab her robe and leave. She hunted around on the floor until her hands touched fabric that was robe length and shape. There. She was ready. Or rather, she was as ready as she would ever be.

As she passed his sleeping form on her way out, she whispered, "I'm so sorry, Edward." Then she walked away, tears falling down her face.

Sarah walked to the train station, where the Strong Arm Alchemist was waiting for her. Silently they boarded a train headed west.

As she was staring out the window at the sunrise, the Strong Arm Alchemist interrupted her thoughts with, "Isn't that the robe that Edward Elric wears?"

Shocked, she looked down. Sure enough, her sleeves were red and not blue. Tears poured down her face as she remembered the first time she had taken his robe.

Evidently sensing that that was a sensitive topic, the Strong Arm Alchemist said nothing more.

~*~*~

Riza Hawkeye was walking past her superior's office when he summoned her inside.

Curious, she asked, "What is it, General?"

He laughed. "Always so formal. Anyway, could you check on Fullmetal? Nobody's seen him, but nobody saw him leave either. He's probably in his rooms, but he should have been working by now."

"OK, but why can't you do it?"

Roy's gaze turned distant. "Because if I'm right, I'm just about the last person he wants to see right now."

Nodding, Riza left and headed for Edward's rooms. What she saw there was shocking.

The Fullmetal Alchemist was sitting in his study, his face a mask of agony, clutching a note and a blue robe.

Instantly Riza asked, "Edward? What's wrong?"

There was no reply. She looked at the blue material in his hands. Didn't she recognize that from somewhere?

Maybe the note would give her a better idea of what was happening. "May I?" she asked, gesturing at the note. He handed it over and she began to read.

_Edward-_

_I was right and Roy's sent me to translate the documents. He's also keeping you here. I don't know where I'm going, but I know that wherever it is, it's the last place I want to be. I'm so sorry that I couldn't give you a proper goodbye, but I know that if I tried I would have to disobey a direct order—I wouldn't be able to leave._

_Sarah_

Sarah. She knew that name. It was the Earthen Alchemist. The two had gone on some important mission, and had evidently grown close. And now Roy was tearing them apart. That action was tearing Edward apart, and likely Sarah too. Riza's face hardened. "I'll be back," she said menacingly, and walked quickly to Roy's office. "General!"

"Yes?"

"What is this!?" she demanded, slamming the note onto his desk.

Roy briefly scanned the note and replied, "The Earthen Alchemist was ordered to translate the documents she found. She was sent to the Western HQ, where she'll actually have a bit of room."

"That's not what I meant. What I meant was, are you insane!?"

"Huh?" His eyes widened with the vehemence in that last question.

"You sent those two out together, and you know both of them! You should have known they would bond! And now, with you sending one away and keeping the other here? What do you think you're accomplishing!?"

There was no answer.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah's hurt right now. And Edward? I hope I never have to see him like that again. He was absolutely miserable, and it's your fault!"

Roy still didn't respond. Riza shook her head in disgust and went to see what she could do for Edward, not that that was likely to be much.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T KILL EMBER!!!!!

Please don't kill Roy either, though it is perfectly acceptable to beat him over the head for being the *** he is. He'll return later, so Ember still needs him. So beatings via REVIEW are A-OK. Especially if they're creative. Ember saves truly creative suggestions for use later when her Ed and Roy muses in particular refuse to cooperate. So please leave any suggestions in your review, as well as general wailing and pleas for light to re-enter the tunnel. Er, we mean, story.

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins


	9. Chapter 9

Ember totally apologizes for all the emoness, but they need time to think about what they really are to each other. Ember totally doesn't believe in throwing two people together without giving them a hard time. For evidence of that see all her Ed/Roy fics. It's there.

EclipseRibbon-- Thank you SO much for the first review since chapter 5!!! Ember had worried that this story had been forsaken, but you proved her wrong and yanked her out of her emo "no one loves me!!" bubble. Seriously. She'd come up with an emo rant to put in this a/n and everything.

And now...

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 9

_Two weeks later…_

Sarah was living through hell. She couldn't do the work she had formerly enjoyed. She couldn't sleep at night. She hadn't been eating well. She was numb to the world around her.

She knew the two people she had been assigned as assistants were talking about her when she left. She had heard them. They were genuinely worried, but she couldn't tell them what was wrong with her. That would only make her worse. It would make her actually have to think about it. She didn't want to think. Thinking would hurt. And so she slaved away at work she had previously enjoyed, concerning the people around her as she began to look worse and worse. She had lost weight, and there were dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep.

She barely slept. Not because she had bad dreams. No, the dreams were wonderful, although they hardly did the blond figure that featured in them justice (no, she couldn't think his name, it would be too much). It just about killed her to wake up after them. And so she slept as little as possible to avoid the pain of waking up and finding she was alone.

That day, as she sat and worked over her documents, fixing her translations as she deciphered more of the language, her mind wandered. It took too much energy out of her to keep it focused on her work and only her work.

Vaguely she wondered how Edward was doing. Was he as badly off as she was? She hoped not. She didn't want to think of him hurting nearly as much as she was. She wanted him to be happy. Then again, a small part of her didn't want that, for it would mean he didn't care about her at all. Either way…

The door was open. She couldn't force back her thoughts anymore. After two weeks, she finally had to face the facts. She was in the West Area headquarters, researching the book she and Edward had retrieved. Edward was far away, in Central. She couldn't go to him, and he couldn't or wouldn't come to see her.

It was too much. She couldn't bear it. This was why she had refused to think about him.

She turned away from her desk as the tears began to fall and walked out of the building. Maybe a walk would help her clear her head. However, that was only a temporary measure and she knew it.

~*~*~

Everyone around him could tell that something was up with Edward. Most people could see that he was easily distracted. Slightly fewer could sense that he was depressed about something. Still fewer knew what was actually wrong. And one of them was to blame for it.

After a week, he finally returned to working. Or rather, trying to work. But he just wasn't the same. He couldn't focus like he used to, and he couldn't do nearly as much as a direct result.

He tried his utmost to suppress his thoughts about Sarah. Some days it worked better than others. It looked like this was going to be a bad day. He just couldn't help but wonder what she was up to. Where was she, and how was she doing? Was she happy to be doing the work that she loved? Or did she miss him like he missed her?

It was time to stop trying to work. He knew better than to keep trying when his thoughts refused to cooperate. Even if he stayed, he wouldn't get anything done. And so he went outside to take a walk. Maybe that would clear his mind enough for him to regain control over his thoughts.

~*~*~

_Two weeks later_…

After Sarah finished her translation of the page she was working on, she realized it was dark. "All right, time to go home," she told her assistants. They left, casting concerned glances in her direction as they did so.

Good. They were gone. She could fall apart like she had been threatening to do all day. The tears began to fall again, like they had every day for the past two weeks. This was actually one of her better days—she had held herself together for the working day, as long as there had been people around her. Most days she couldn't do that, giving her assistants even more cause for concern.

Even though it was a good day, all things considered, she was still absolutely miserable. She wanted this to end. She couldn't take the misery anymore. She needed Edward, and soon. She only hoped she would get her wish sometime in the very near future.

Apparently her assistants had simply been waiting outside for her to fall to pieces, for they came rushing back in as she sank to her knees in front of her table. It seemed they actually cared what happened. It was nice that people out there cared about her, but they couldn't do much of anything to help. At this point, only one person could end this misery. And he wasn't there.

~*~*~

Edward went to General Mustang's office that day only because he had been summoned. The general was the last person he wanted to see. However, the look in Hawkeye's eyes as she told him the general wanted to see him was different than the look he had seen for the past month. Instead of the sorrow and sympathy he had grown used to ignoring, there was a glimmer of hope. Something was up, and he wanted to know what.

"Ah, Fullmetal. There you are."

"What do you want?" he asked dully.

"I'm going to the West Area HQ."

"And?"

"You're coming with me."

"Why?"

"Because I ordered you to."

"Whatever." Ordinarily Edward would have offered a little resistance, but nothing seemed to matter anymore. This trip would change nothing. It didn't matter to him what the scenery was.

"How soon can you be ready to go?"

Edward shrugged. It wouldn't take long at all for him to pack a few belongings.

"Good. We leave in an hour, then."

"Whatever." And soon they were on a train to the West Area.

"Fullmetal?"

"What?"

"When we get there, I need you to do something for me."

"What?"

"You're going to go to their research lab and check on the progress that's being made there."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. I'd do it myself, but the commander there wants to see me as soon as we arrive. So you're doing it instead."

That was just like the general, avoiding any work that he himself didn't have to do. But it didn't matter. It was something to do.

Soon they were stepping off the train at the Western headquarters. The general pointed him in the right direction. "Go, Fullmetal. And while you're at it, offer the head of research there my sincerest apologies."

"What'd you do this time?"

"I think I really annoyed her."

"Go figure. How?"

"See, I separated her from this friend of hers. Now go. You just might see a familiar face." And the general left with a wink.

A familiar face? Who did he know that might be working on research here? All of a sudden a conversation replayed in his head.

"_The sun's up. As soon as the sun comes up, I generally can't go to sleep."_

_Edward winced. "That sounds bad."_

"_Oh, it is. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've spent all night researching and then had to stay awake the whole day after, simply because I couldn't sleep."_

Go figure. He was thinking about Sarah again. But wait—what was that last part?

"_You wouldn't believe the number of times I've spent all night researching…"_

Researching. Sarah was a researcher. And she had been sent somewhere. All the details fit.

Trying to suppress his hopes, he ran to the research lab as the sun began to set.

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Another cliffie. Wow. Ember totally forgot where she ended all her chapters. Hmm... as a "don't kill the authoress" gift, if people review she'll post the next chapter early. Please?


	10. Chapter 10

Hmm Ember's feeling lazy today so just some review responses before the story...

Kuchaki- Yes, Roy is occasionally capable of doing the right thing. Strange. Don't worry though, there'll be plenty of things at Roy's expense coming... and not just in this chapter either... Ember loves making Roy sweat (in the terrified way. Just in case that got misinterpreted.). XD

HyperTails23- Thank you for such an honest review. This is Ember's first fanfic like ever (she wrote it long before anything else and then kept all the fundamental details and fixed a few words here and there) and it was a kind of trial and error thing. Looking back now that you mention it she's like "Wow. They're kinda sorta really pathetic and that makes no sense." She guesses her logic at the time was spending 24 hours a day with someone like they did does tend to bring people closer faster. But it was still OOC, and she thanks you for pointing that out and makes a mental note to torture her characters longer before making them so readily dependent and pathetic.

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 10

Sarah began to clean up her worktable. She couldn't do any more. Her ability to concentrate was gone. Roy would be furious—a month had passed and she had barely made any progress. She had translated 10 pages or so, but there was still so much more to go.

Suddenly the door opened and a voice said, "I'm supposed to talk to the head researcher here."

She froze. She knew that voice.

Slowly, struggling to control herself, she turned around and saw an even more familiar face framed by golden hair. "Edward!"

"Sarah?" He sounded just as surprised and happy as she felt.

She couldn't take it any longer. She ran across the room to his open arms, practically tackling him.

He chuckled. "Missed me, huh?"

"You have no idea," she muttered.

"Actually, I think I do. It's been hell."

"Yeah. Let's not try that again."

"Agreed."

At about that point, she remembered that they weren't alone. Her assistants were still there. She turned her head, unwilling to let go of Edward. Sure enough, they were staring at her and him. "What are you looking at?" she demanded.

There was no reply. She turned back to Edward. "What say you we ditch the spectators?"

"I couldn't agree more."

She smiled. "I knew you would see it that way. In that case, I know a nice secluded area on the outskirts of town."

"Oh! I forgot I actually was sent here for a reason. Our dear general—" she noted Ed's sarcasm—"would like to convey his utmost apologies."

Her eyes narrowed. "Thanks. You reminded me I have to deal with him. You might not want to see this," she warned.

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss it for the world. Although I think Colonel Hawkeye beat you to it."

"He needs another dose of chewing out. It'll do him good."

"Did I ever say otherwise?"

"Well, no," she admitted as they looked for Roy. Finally they found him leaving the commander's office. "Hey, Roy! Come here for a second!"

Roy turned to face her. As soon as he saw her furious expression he turned slightly pale. At least he wasn't trying to excuse himself. That would have only made things worse for him. "You need something?"

"Yeah. You. Outside. Now."

Roy slowly complied. As soon as they were outside Sarah's foot lashed out. Roy went down, grimacing.

Sarah wasn't done. "Roy, you idiot! What were you thinking, sending me out here like this!? Oh, I know! You weren't!"

Roy struggled to say something. Sarah slapped her hands together and transmuted the dirt under him to hold and gag him.

"I'm not finished!" she snarled. "Do you have any idea what it's been like out here!? I've gone through hell, and it's all your fault!" Another flash of transmutation, and Roy found himself facing down a very sharp spike.

Suddenly Sarah felt a hand on her shoulder. "That's enough for now," Edward said softly. "I think you've terrorized the poor general more than you intended to."

"I _intended_ to _murder_ him!" she grumbled, but she reversed the transmutations. Roy was free to move and talk. "Well? Get up!"

Roy hurried to comply. Sarah sighed. "Get out of my sight," she muttered, dropping her head into her hands.

As Roy hurried away, Sarah turned to Edward. "Thank you."

"No problem. I don't think you really want to hurt him, so…"

"No, I don't. Come with me." And Sarah began to walk, with Edward following close behind.

~*~*~

Sarah led Edward to the fringe of a wood on the outskirts of town. "Come on," she said. "I've been dying to see what this place is like, but I was afraid…"

Edward knew how that sentence would have ended, even though she had trailed off. He would have been afraid of remembering, too. That wood might have reopened wounds, forced unwanted memories to the surface. But they were together again. Together they could face it. "Well, then, let's go."

Together they walked through the wood, soon coming to a creek. "Let's follow this," Sarah said.

"All right. Lead on."

Soon they came to a bend in the creek where it widened out a little. Rocks in the creek made the glittering water ripple. "It's beautiful," Sarah murmured. Finding a fallen tree right near the creek, she sat, taking off her shoes and dangling her bare feet in the water.

Edward sat next to her in comfortable silence for a while, watching the movement of the water and Sarah's face in turns.

Finally Sarah broke the silence. "I missed you. A lot."

"I'd say the same, but I have a feeling it would be an understatement."

"Yeah. Hey, Edward?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's take some time off and go to Risembool again."

He couldn't think of a better idea. "Well, then, let's go negotiate with the man you almost killed."

"Do you really think I would have killed him?" Sarah seemed a little ashamed of her actions.

"I don't know what you would have done. You were a little scary." Actually, she had been very scary, but he wasn't going to tell her that.

"Guess I'd better apologize for that."

"He deserved it. Even though he did send me to apologize for him."

"He did?"

"Yeah. I was supposed to send you his sincerest apologies, but I got a little sidetracked."

She laughed. "Well, so did I. It was a little surprising to see you, to say the least. Not that I minded at all."

Comfortable silence enveloped them again as they sat on the fallen tree quietly holding each other.

~*~*~

Finally Sarah broke the silence again. "We'd better get going. We wouldn't want people to worry about us, now, would we?"

"No, I guess not. But could you imagine the general's face? It'd be priceless!"

Sarah chuckled as she jumped off the tree. Suddenly she had an idea. While Edward wasn't looking, she cupped her hands and dipped them in the creek. Then she threw the water she had collected at him.

He jumped about six inches straight up in surprise, then turned to Sarah. "All right, now you're asking for it," he threatened.

"Asking for what?" Sarah asked, trying and failing to keep her face straight. Shortly after she asked that she was soaking wet. "Hey! No fair, transmuting a bucket!"

"I don't think any rules were established. Therefore it's perfectly fair."

Cursing Edward's logic, she prepared herself for the water fight of her life.

Five minutes later they had to stop the fight because they had both collapsed due to laughter. Edward pronounced it a draw because they were both thoroughly soaked. "Although I _do _think I should get points for creativity," he added.

"Creativity? You mean cheating?"

"Hey, they both start with 'c'. That's close enough."

"Not really. But you can keep thinking that if it makes you feel better."

"It does."

"Well, it shouldn't."

"Do you really think I care if it should or not?"

"No, not really."

"Good. Glad that's established."

There was nothing whatsoever Sarah could say to that. It was just too childish to deserve a proper comeback. And so, standing up, she began to walk the way they had come, knowing that he would catch up.

Sure enough he did. After retracing their footsteps for a while, she asked, "I wonder what everyone will think when they see we're soaked."

"I don't know."

"Me neither. And you know what? I don't really care."

"Exactly my point of view," Edward grinned.

When they had almost reached the edge of the wood, Edward stopped moving. Sarah turned around. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing," Edward replied, drawing her into an embrace. "Just something I figured I should do while we're away from other people."

While Sarah was trying to figure out what exactly he meant by that, he kissed her.

It was far better than Sarah had remembered, being with him like this. The gentle way he held her and the sheer love she felt coming from him made her lightheaded and weak-kneed as she returned his kiss.

All too soon they pulled apart and continued their return to Western headquarters hand in hand.

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Thanks for reading!

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins


	11. Chapter 11

And yet another chapter.

No reviews to respond to... that makes Ember sad. This fic was kind of a trial run, and without feedback Ember doesn't know what people like and don't like about her story development and writing style. So please review to help an authoress improve.

In any case, before Ember goes on an emo rant...

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 11

After they returned and found the general, Edward watched his face with sheer amusement as Sarah shouted, "Roy!" in an incredibly happy tone. The general was instantly suspicious and slightly afraid. Then again, Edward couldn't exactly blame him. After all, the last time he'd seen her she'd been pretty much trying to kill him. That would make anyone a little wary.

Sarah quickly explained what she wanted. "Since you owe us, I think you can arrange to give Edward and me about a week or so off. It's not like either of us would get anything done anyway."

"And why exactly do you want a week off?"

"Because we'll just be totally unproductive anyway. Besides, I think it's about time Edward's brother had a visit from him."

"You mean a visit besides the one you two paid him last month?" The general's face was suddenly stern. "What, you think I didn't know about you two sneaking out of Central?"

"Um, yeah, we did think you didn't know." That wasn't strictly true. They had figured their little escapade hadn't gone unnoticed, but they weren't aware that the knowledge had reached the general.

"Well, I did. And believe me, I wasn't happy about it. What was I supposed to think about two upstanding State Alchemists disregarding orders like that? Well, that's not really true. I'd expect it from Fullmetal there any day, but _you_? You've _never_ disobeyed orders."

Sarah didn't respond. Edward could only hold his breath.

The general continued, "Well, I guess it can't be helped. You both have two weeks. Then I expect you back in Central."

Sarah stared at the general. "Really!?"

"Yes, Sarah," he sighed. "Really."

"Thank you!" she shouted as she hugged him. Edward chuckled. Sarah really could be very energetic when she wanted to be.

Sarah finally let go of the general and ran in his direction. "Hey, pack your things. We're going to see your brother."

As they left, the general said, "Fullmetal?"

Edward turned around. "Yes?"

He could have sworn the general was smirking. "Good luck with her. She's a handful, but she's a nice person." Then he walked away, and Edward was left wondering what on earth he meant by that.

~*~*~

The first thing Sarah did was run to call Winry and let her know they were coming, having heard from her several complaints about Edward's bad habit of just showing up.

"Hello? Rockbell automail shop," Winry's voice said.

"Hey, Winry? It's Sarah."

"Oh, you mean Ed's new friend? What's going on?"

"I figured I should let you know we'd be coming over for a little while."

Winry was instantly ecstatic. "Really? Hey, Al!" she shouted to some far-off place. "Your brother's coming here!" Then she returned to talking into the phone. "Oh, this is so _exciting_! Thank goodness he's met you, he _never_ used to call and let me know he was coming. He'd just show up out of nowhere—"

"With his automail all busted. Somehow I think we've had this conversation before. Maybe last month sometime?"

"Oh, I've said that?" Winry sounded slightly sheepish.

"Several times. But I understand. He must have been a pain for you to deal with."

"Oh, he was. But he's improved now that he's gotten older."

Just then Edward said from a few feet away, "You're talking about me. I can tell."

Sarah turned her head away from the phone and asked, "When did you work that one out, as soon as I said automail?"

"Yeah, about then."

She sighed.

Winry heard that. "What's going on?"

"Edward's just being himself."

"What'd he do this time?"

"He said, 'You're talking about me. I can tell.' So I asked him when he worked that out. Was it when we were talking about his automail? And he said, 'Yeah, about then.' Takes a real genius to work that one out, huh?"

Edward interrupted her with a wicked grin. "See? You _are_ talking about me."

Soon Sarah had said good-bye to Winry and Edward had a good-sized bump on his head.

Ed rubbed his head gently. "Ow… What was that for?"

Sarah didn't reply. That question just didn't deserve a response.

~*~*~

Winry knew something was up the moment Ed and Sarah set foot in Risembool a few days later.

There was something undeniably different about the two of them, and at first she couldn't quite figure out what it was. Then she began to notice subtle differences. Like the way they'd catch each other's eyes occasionally, and the way they were smiling. It was almost as if Winry had been right about them.

Her suspicions reached a peak during the second day of their week-long stay when the two claimed they were going for a walk. Shortly after they left, Winry decided that she and Al needed to take a walk of their own. So what if it followed their path exactly?

Al spent most of his time trying to get her to leave them alone. "Winry, why can't you just leave them alone?"

"Because there's something I need to find out," she replied quietly as they rounded a corner.

"Then why can't you just ask them?"

"Are you kidding? They'd never tell me something like that!"

"Maybe there's a _reason_…" Al mumbled as they continued following Ed and Sarah to the outskirts of town.

Winry ignored that and watched the two closely. "See? I'm right, I just know it!" she exclaimed quietly. "They're still holding hands! Why would they… unless…"

Al sighed. "Winry, give it a rest, will you?"

But Winry was curious now, and she was so close to being proven right. She just couldn't give it up now that she'd come this far. She was sure to find even more if she stayed. And sure enough, she did. At that precise moment she got all the proof she needed. There was no way they could explain that one away.

She was absolutely right about them, and she was sure of it. After all, why else would they… no, she couldn't even finish that thought. It was just too shocking, even if she had seen it coming from a mile away.

~*~*~

Edward smirked as he and Sarah gently pulled apart. "We have an audience," he murmured.

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Winry?"

"And Al, but he was probably trying to get Winry to leave well enough alone. So, yeah. Not that that's surprising."

"It's not?"

"Oh, no. If I'm right, she's been hoping for something like this pretty much since she met you. I got Al to confess that they were only going to that dance last month because Winry got it into her head to play matchmaker."

"Really, now?" It was Sarah's turn to smirk.

"What are you smirking about?"

"Well, since we have an audience, normally I'd say we should charge a spectator's fee. But since it _is_ your friend and your brother, I figure we might as well give them a good show." And with that she kissed him far more passionately than she had ever done before.

While it had initially been for show, this kiss quickly evolved as they reacted to each other. Edward nearly lost all control of himself as Sarah pressed herself against him, weaving her fingers into his braided hair.

This was bad. Edward knew it. There was no telling what could happen. But he was by no means inclined to stop it. Not yet.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to. Winry had by that point decided she'd had enough and came running up to them. "Ed!" She sounded mortified. "Don't you know you're in _public_!?"

Ed chuckled. "You make it sound like it's _my_ fault."

"I'm blaming you whether it is or not."

"How fair is that?!"

Sarah interjected. "Not fair at all. If you're going to blame someone, make sure you get it right."

"There's a big difference between laying blame on someone and something actually being their fault," Winry proclaimed.

"So, even though you recognize it's not my fault, you're going to blame me," Edward summarized.

"Well, you didn't exactly do anything to stop it."

"Who says I wanted to?"

Winry was clearly frustrated by this point. "You should have! Have you no shame?"

Edward pretended to think. "Hmm, lemme see… Nope, nothing," he smirked.

Winry sighed disgustedly. "Get a room next time!" she exclaimed.

Edward looked at Sarah and they both grinned. "Get a room, huh?" Edward wondered aloud.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sarah declared.

Winry shouted, "I didn't really mean that!"

"Then why'd you say it?!" Sarah and Edward asked in unison, smiling as they did so.

Winry had evidently learned her lesson. She didn't reply as they returned to her house.

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Despite what it seems in this chapter, more action is coming (and not the romantic variety, either). This is kind of the peaceful interlude. There are still multiple chapters to go. So just know that.

Ember's tired. So she's shutting up now.

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins


	12. Chapter 12

Ok, it's time to have a little chat. First off, Ember offers her most sincere apologies for not updating in so long. However, for a little while she was busy with other projects and then she was feeling severely unmotivated.

The reason? This chapter has been up for nearly a month and has not had a single review. 231 hits, but no review. It made Ember cry.

Ember hopes a lesson can be learned from this gap in motivation and people review. Please. It really helps Ember remember to get the story up. And had there at any point in the past month been a review asking for more soon there would've been an update in 5 minutes after Ember saw it since she's such a sucker.

In any case, Ember doesn't really like this story. She's been rereading it and realizing just how bad it sucks, but then again she promised to finish posting it. At least the lag time gives her more time to work on her next epic projects. So please give some constructive criticism and help Ember pinpoint exactly what she thinks sucks about this so much? She doesn't want the next one to suck.

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 12

Sarah woke up in the middle of the night suddenly. She was terrified, but she couldn't quite remember why. Then her dream came flooding back to her.

_Everything had started just fine. She was walking through Risembool with Edward when Roy came up to them._

"_Oh! Hey, Roy! What are you doing here?" she asked gleefully._

"_Well, I need to have a word with Fullmetal here."_

_No. That was a bad idea. She knew that if Roy had his talk with Edward she would never see him again. She felt a cry escape from her lips. "No!"_

_Edward smiled at her. "I can't see the harm in it. It's just a talk, I'll be right back."_

_Tears flooded down her face as the one she loved cheerfully walked out of her life._

She had had this sort of dream before, of course, but none of them had been so convincing before. All of a sudden she had to be sure Edward was real, was actually there. She had to see him.

Grabbing her robe, she left Winry's room (where she was sleeping on a cot, having refused to take Winry's bed from her) and began wandering. Her feet led her to the main room, where someone was sitting on the couch. Someone with suspiciously long blond hair.

Her suspicions were confirmed as Edward turned around to face her. He smiled wryly. "You couldn't sleep either?"

"No. _Nasty_ dream," she whispered, shuddering as she remembered.

"Care to share it?" he asked, gesturing to the couch next to him.

She gratefully sat and he put an arm around her shoulders. "Not really. It was kind of stupid, actually."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

They sat in silence for a while. Finally Edward said, "Well, I had a kind of stupid dream too."

"What was it?"

"You first."

"All right, but you'll think it's really pathetic."

"We'll see about that."

Quickly and shamefacedly, Sarah relayed her dream. "I told you it was pathetic," she finished.

"Not really. Mine was much the same."

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. Kind of pathetic, huh?"

"Well, at least we're pathetic together. That's something."

"Yes, it is," Edward agreed. "Much better than the alternative."

And they sat in comfortable silence together, slowly falling asleep, neither wishing to leave the other for anything.

~*~*~

The next morning Edward woke up and realized he had never moved from the couch he had wandered to. A second later he realized why as he saw Sarah at his side, still asleep.

The third thing he realized was that they had both overslept. By a _lot_. It was almost noon.

It was time to wake Sarah. He didn't really want to; she looked so _peaceful_. But he knew she wouldn't want to waste what was left of the day.

Gently he brushed her short hair out of her face. "Sarah?" he said quietly. "It's time to wake up."

She stirred and mumbled something incoherent, then opened her eyes. "Oh. So that wasn't a dream."

"No, I'm afraid not."

She cursed. "That would have been the best dream this week. I'm not complaining or anything, but my dreams have gotten a lot worse since you came back. The ones where I remembered you all through last month were _amazing_, no matter how much they hurt."

"Really? Maybe I should leave you here and go to Central, if that's the case." He hoped she could tell he was joking. There was no way he would do that to her or to himself.

She smiled weakly. "Please don't."

He wrapped his arms around her. "I won't," he promised. "Besides, even if I _wanted_ to leave you—which I don't—that wouldn't work. You think I don't know you'd just be on the next train to Central the moment you knew I was gone?"

"You know me too well."

"I don't think there's such a thing as knowing you _too_ well," he countered.

Before she could reply to that, Winry entered the room. "So you two _are_ awake, after all. Had a good night's sleep?" she asked wickedly.

Well, two could play at that game. "Yes, actually. Better than most," he retorted.

"Stop teasing them, Winry," Al's voice sounded as he too entered the room.

"Why should I?"

"Because it's the nice thing to do," Al replied.

"Since when have I ever been nice?" Winry wanted to know.

"Good question," Edward grinned.

Winry's only response to that was to throw a wrench at him.

Sarah turned to Winry as Edward rubbed his sore head. "As much as he deserved that, I'm going to have to ask you not to beat his brains out with that wrench. See, I _like_ his brains where they are."

"He has brains?"

"Well, the jury's still out on that one," Sarah admitted.

"Gee, thanks," Edward grumbled.

"But that's not the point. The point is, don't break him yet."

Winry pouted as Edward exclaimed, "_Yet_!?"

Winry still had a few questions, though. "How about bumps and bruises?"

Sarah thought about it. "Only when he deserves them. And not too many."

Winry sighed. "Take all the fun out of it, why don't you?"

"That's my job," Sarah grinned as she hugged Edward.

~*~*~

Edward and Sarah ran to the train station, followed closely by Winry and Al. It was their last day, and they had almost missed their train.

Sarah was annoyed, to put it mildly. She had told Edward a _thousand_ times that they needed to get going, but _no_. He _had_ to go and distract both of them with admittedly far better ideas of what they could do with their time than go to the train station. Which led them to where they were, running and hoping they would make it on time.

Finally they boarded the train as it was about to leave. Opening the window, Sarah shouted farewells to Al and Winry. "Bye! I'll call you two when we get to East City!"

"You will, now?" Edward asked, hugging her from behind as he approached the window to wave goodbye.

"I just said that, didn't I? Besides, I've always wanted to see the city," she retorted, leaning into his embrace.

"And who said we're getting off this train in East City?" he murmured near her ear.

She shivered. "I did."

They waved goodbye to Al and Winry as the train pulled out of the station.

"And just what makes you so sure we're stopping there?" Edward asked, pulling her closer.

"You won't say no to a little extension of our alone time before we report back to Roy, will you?" She turned around and faced him, burying her head in his shoulder.

"No, not really," he admitted, running his fingers through her hair.

Sarah _loved_ being with Edward like this. It was so calm and peaceful, but it felt so good at the same time. They would definitely have to get more time off soon. But she had to deal with other things first—like thanking Edward for allowing them to get off in East City. Which she proceeded to do quite thoroughly. Luckily not many people were on the train, so they were alone in their car. Otherwise they would probably have had to deal with plenty of unhappy fellow passengers.

When they broke apart, after catching his breath, Edward asked, "Not that I mind, but was that for anything in particular?"

Sarah smiled. "That was for letting me see East City."

"I still don't see what your fascination is with it. There's not much to see."

"But I haven't seen it before. Therefore I want to see it sometime." And the conversation continued back and forth, neither of them knowing what was waiting for them in East City.


	13. Chapter 13

EclipseRibbon- Thank you very much for your kind review. Ember still thinks this story sucks, but she loves you for saying otherwise. 3

Ember's been far too busy for many other comments lately. Just... read.

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 13

Edward smiled inwardly as he led a happily-chattering Sarah through East City. He still didn't see why she was so fascinated with it—there really was nothing much to see. But she was happy, which made him happy, and that was what mattered. Besides, Mustang could wait. He deserved it.

Suddenly she tensed next to him. "What is it?" he asked, mildly concerned.

"I forgot to call Winry and Al!" she exclaimed.

"That's all? You got yourself all worked up because of that?"

"Well, I said I would!"

Edward couldn't suppress a laugh. "Come on. There was a telephone around that corner we just turned, you can call them and we can get back to the train station."

When they turned the corner, though, Edward could sense that they were being followed. Turning around sharply, he recognized one of their attackers from the forest so long ago. "Sarah?" he whispered. "I think we have bigger problems than calling Al and Winry."

~*~*~

"Bigger problems?" Sarah asked. "Explain."

"Remember the little friends we made back in that forest so long ago?" he asked, his voice as soft as he could make it while ensuring that she could hear him.

Sarah understood instantly. "They followed us."

"Yeah."

"Plan?"

"Run like hell, get out of the city so we don't break anything important, and deal with it from there?"

Good. He knew that, as two powerful alchemists, they could do severe damage to their surroundings. In all likelihood he'd worked that one out a long time ago on his long, hard quest for the Philosopher's Stone.

As one they turned and, as Edward so eloquently put it, ran like hell out of the city.

When they finally made it (Sarah had almost gotten them lost when she took a wrong turn) they realized that their opponents had planned on them running.

They were surrounded by men with knives.

Standing back to back, Sarah asked, "See any way out of this?"

"No. So we've got to fight."

"Damn, I was hoping they'd just want a little chat. Maybe over some tea?"

Edward snorted. "Somehow I doubt that's what they're after. Unless, of course, the tea is poisoned, in which case they'd _love_ for us to have some."

And on that lovely ending note, they attacked. Edward quickly disarmed one man and tossed the knife to Sarah, knowing she was unarmed. She caught it deftly as he transmuted the metal he always wore around his arms into short blades. They were ready.

Or so they thought, Sarah reflected as a man crept up behind her, slashing her side with his knife. Beating him soundly over the head with the hilt of her own knife, she turned to find someone running full speed at Edward from behind, knife out at the level of Edward's neck. He was totally unaware that he was about to die.

Reacting instantly, Sarah ran into the man, blocking him from his intended target. Unfortunately for her, he was rather heavy and she heard and felt her left arm snap as he fell on top of her. Luckily she had avoided his blade, though.

Evidently deciding that he didn't really want her to die quickly, the man hit her on the head with the hilt of his knife, much like she had done to one of his allies. However, he hadn't hit her quite as hard, and so she was still conscious. Or was that because she had a stronger will than the other man? She saved that to debate until later as her attacker picked himself up and turned to where she knew Edward was.

This fight was going wrong—horribly wrong. There were too many of them and only two of her and Edward. If she didn't do something they would both die.

Suddenly she laughed. "What was I thinking?" she muttered. "I'm an alchemist, and I haven't even tried transmuting anything yet."

And as she began to fade into unconsciousness, she clapped her hands—wincing at the pain in her obviously broken arm—and slammed her right hand onto the ground in front of her.

~*~*~

As Sarah's alchemy bound their attackers in what seemed to be cocoons of dirt, Edward hurried to where she had collapsed.

He felt guilty beyond belief. He should have _known_ someone was coming up behind him. But he hadn't noticed, and she had. And she was hurt because of it.

She was obviously losing consciousness as he gently turned her over. "Edward?" she mumbled, slurring the name a little.

"I'm here." He paused. "Thank you, Sarah."

She laughed softly. "For what, dancing with you or agreeing to come out here in the first place?" she repeated that question from so long ago, obviously revisiting some of her better memories as she fought to stay awake.

For some reason unknown to him, tears began to form in his eyes at the reminder of those better days. "Both," he whispered as she lost her battle to stay conscious.

Edward turned to where the men that had attacked them were, straining to get out of their bonds. That wouldn't do at all. They would escape and try to kill him and Sarah again. Walking over to them, he quickly and efficiently knocked them all out. They could stay like that until someone from the military arrived to see what all the commotion had been. Edward had more important things to deal with.

Turning to Sarah, he quickly examined her for injuries. Her left arm was obviously broken, and there was a nasty-looking bump on her head, probably what had caused her to pass out. Also, there was a wound to her side that she was losing a lot of blood from.

She had to get to a hospital. In order to do that, she had to be moved. That meant that Edward had to do what he could here first.

Splinting her arm, Edward chuckled, "I'm really glad you're not awake for this. I don't need you to murder me for this. I know it hurts, but it needs to be done so you can be moved."

He couldn't really do much about her head, but he was pretty sure there weren't any little fractures in her skull. That left her side. Which meant that he had to see the wound.

Uncomfortable, he muttered, "And I'm _really_ glad you're not awake for _this_." And he was—he was certain that if she had been aware of what was going on he would die. But he needed to see where he was bandaging.

Quickly and gingerly, he lifted her shirt just enough to be able to see the cut in her side. It wasn't too bad, apart from being fairly deep. The main problem was that it was still bleeding.

Going to one of the men, he ripped off the man's shirt. They had caused the wound—it was only fitting that he use their belongings to help it heal, in a way. Plus, he liked his clothes where they were. Not that he wouldn't have used them if he'd needed to—but there were better options.

Edward deftly bandaged the wound in her side before deeming it safe to move her. Picking up her unconscious form, he headed in the direction of the nearest hospital.

~*~*~

Sarah was walking in darkness. She had no idea where she was, but she didn't really care. It was almost surreal—she felt nothing. It was almost as if she _was_ nothing.

All of a sudden she saw a light and felt warmth. It was the first thing she had felt or seen in this strange place. Curious, she began walking towards the light she could dimly see.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Whoops, cliffie. Forgot about that *sheepish grin*.

Before Ember goes and hides in her anti-nuclear-weapons-and-enraged-reviewers bunker, might she suggest that review love will make her update faster?

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins shall take over the world!... as soon as they come out of hiding.


	14. Chapter 14

EclipseRibbon, this is for you. Because Ember loves you and is a sucker and is home sick today and really really wants to be able to come out of her anti-nuclear-weapons-and-enraged-reviewers bunker.

Dang, this is short. So Ember figures it's all the better that it's coming out so soon after the last one.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 14

Edward was more worried than he was letting on. Sarah hadn't regained consciousness since the fight had ended, except for a brief moment at the hospital that was filled with colorful language. Edward had never known a hospital could have that many names before.

The doctor who was working there thought that the reason she was still unconscious was her head injury, which was looking worse with each minute that passed. If she didn't wake up soon, it would probably mean that there was more permanent brain damage.

She was so _still_. It looked almost as if…

No. That was far too much for him to even think. To reassure himself that she was still alive, he felt her wrist for her pulse.

It was dangerously weak, more so than before. Coupled with the fact that she was barely breathing, this worried Edward to no end.

"Sarah," he whispered. "Come on, Sarah, you need to wake up."

There was no response. In fact, it looked as if she was breathing even more shallowly.

"Sarah! Come back to the world of the living here. You can do it."

Still no response.

This was about as much as Edward could take. "Damn it, Sarah, wake up! Fight! Come on!"

~*~*~

Sarah had almost reached the light. It was truly a beautiful thing, sort of a bluish-white in its brightness, but she wasn't blinded. She was almost entranced by it. What was creating this light? She moved closer to examine it.

There was a door in the light, a beautifully-engraved silver door. She put her hand on the handle, which felt comfortably warm.

"Sarah!" she heard a voice call out all of a sudden. She looked around.

Back the way she had come was Edward, trying and failing to reach where she was. He was clearly distressed. Something was horribly wrong. She had to get to him.

Leaving the door in the light behind, she ran blindly, frantically struggling to reach him.

~*~*~

Edward had almost reached sheer panic when he heard a gasping sound. Sarah was breathing normally again. When he felt her pulse, it was returning to a stronger beat. She would be all right.

Her eyelids fluttered. "Ed…?" she whispered.

Relief washed over him like a wave. "Don't ever scare me like that again," he muttered fiercely as he hugged her. "Do you know you almost _died_?"

"No, I was busy trying to find a source for all this light I saw."

He snorted. "Typical. You get yourself knocked out, see a light, and instead of realizing what's going on you _examine_ the light. What _am_ I going to do with you?"

"You're going to tell me exactly how badly I hurt myself," she suggested.

"You broke your left arm, for starters."

"Figured as much. Hurts like hell."

"I can imagine. Anyways, you lost a fair amount of blood from that gash in your side, and you hit your head. Pretty hard, too, I would guess, because you've been unconscious for about three days or so."

She struggled to rise. "Three days? You're kidding!"

He gently kept her on her cot. "No, I'm not. And you shouldn't strain yourself like that, it will only take you longer to get out of this… what did you call it? You said something rather nice. Oh, now I remember: a 'horrible house of hell-spawn haplessly hopping about'. It was almost poetic, I could write a sonnet about it," he grinned.

She stared at him. He grinned more widely. "Is the thought of me writing a sonnet so shocking?"

"I _didn't_ say that," she muttered, referring to her creative use of alliteration.

"Actually, you kind of _did_," he replied. "Luckily the good doctor has a sense of humor; he laughed himself out the door."

She looked even more shocked. "I _did_ say that?"

"I could get the doctor to prove it when he comes back. I think he wrote it down so he wouldn't forget it."

Sarah started to yawn and her eyes closed. "How can I be so tired after spending three whole _days_ asleep?" she demanded lazily.

"Your body's trying to fix what you did to it. Poor thing, it has a long way to go. Let it. Get some sleep," he smiled.

She still struggled to stay awake. "But… what if the same thing happens again, and this time I can't get to you?"

"Don't worry about that. I'm right here, and I think I'll stay for a while," he grinned. "Now go to sleep, before I get the doctor to knock you out with some nice drugs guaranteed to make you think happy thoughts."

He didn't need to say the threat. She was already asleep.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Eww. As Ember said, she's home sick today. No fever or anything, just this really nasty sore throat that almost prevented her from taking some drugs of her own because it hurt to swallow. A lot. It's all because of her stupid family, which is throwing some illness across the house right now.

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins, of which one looks kinda pale right now


	15. Chapter 15

Oh wow, it has been a while, hasn't it?

Ember apologizes profusely to her two reviewers, EclipseRibbon and FALLING-ANGEL24, for not posting in so long. There's been this thing called Real Life lately, and it's decided to become a real b****.

EclipseRibbon: Thank you for telling Ember she can come out of hiding, even if after the first couple weeks of waiting you didn't really mean it anymore. Umm... *scrolls down* Ember doesn't _think_ anything happens this time that requires the bunker once more... Still, it'd be nice if you could warn Ember before coming after her with medieval torture devices. Just in case.

FALLING-ANGEL24: Ember's glad it was cute and funny. As for when the next chapter will be... umm, just look down.

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 15

Sarah woke up again the next morning to find Edward nodding off in a chair beside her cot, still holding her hand. She smiled. It was really sweet of him, staying with her all this time.

Just then he woke up. "Oh. You're awake?"

"Barely."

He chuckled. "How's your head?"

"Well, it's attached. I think that counts for something."

"I was serious."

"So was I. I do think it being attached counts for something."

"That bad?"

"Not really. I feel… a bit lightheaded, I guess. It's better than what it could be."

"What it _should_ be," Edward corrected. "It should be killing you right about now, or that's how it looks, anyway. And the rest of you?"

"Sick of being in bed," she replied honestly.

"Sorry, but I've got strict orders to keep you there, at least until the doctor can get a look at you."

Just then, as if he had been waiting for a cue, the doctor entered the room. "How's our lively one doing?"

Sarah started. "I'm sorry about what I hear I said earlier," she said in a rush.

The doctor laughed. "Don't be. That was excellent, a marvelous departure from the normal round of cursing. You've got quite a vocabulary."

Edward chuckled. "See? I told you he thought it was funny."

"I still shouldn't have said it," she mumbled. Neither of the men in the room paid any attention.

The doctor quickly examined her side and arm, then asked, "How's your head?"

Edward interjected, "None of that 'it's attached' nonsense."

The doctor looked at him. "She told you that?"

"Yeah."

"She really _is_ a lively one, isn't she?"

"Very much so," Edward grinned.

"But back to business," the doctor declared. "How's your head?"

"It feels a bit strange," she admitted. "I feel a bit lightheaded, but it doesn't really hurt or anything."

"OK. Can you sit up?"

"I can try. Nursemaid Elric there hasn't let me do a thing."

"With good reason," Edward retorted as the doctor laughed. "If I had done the same thing to myself, would you have let me get up and walk around as if nothing was wrong?"

"No, but that's different."

"I don't see how," he replied as she slowly sat up. "You're hurt and you need to recover. That means not causing yourself undue strain."

"Undue strain as in killing you for trapping me in bed?"

The doctor decided to interject at this point. "That would definitely be called 'undue strain'. Besides, I like him. He's a good person. You should keep him around for a while."

Sarah smiled. "I have every intention of doing that—even if he makes me want to murder him in his sleep."

"You're only saying that because you couldn't kill me when I'm awake. You'd feel too guilty," Edward retorted.

"Maybe I would and maybe I wouldn't. So am I freed yet?" she asked the doctor.

He grinned. "I'm afraid not. We're going to keep you here for a while to monitor your head injury. The rest of you should recover soon. But you can walk around a little as long as someone's with you—I think the worst is over."

"I don't think that will be a problem," she said, looking at Edward.

The doctor noticed her glance and chuckled. She looked back at him quizzically. "Oh, it's nothing," he said. "Anyhow, I'll leave you two alone for a while." And he walked out of the room.

Edward looked at her. "See? The doctor isn't so bad."

"No, I like him. It's the idea of being in a hospital I can't stand." She yawned, trying to be discreet about it.

He noticed anyway and gently pushed her back down onto the hospital bed.

"I'm not tired," she weakly protested.

"Sure. I'm supposed to believe that." His eyes stated quite firmly that he wouldn't stand for argument. "You need to sleep. Anyone here can tell you that."

"I don't want to," Sarah complained, not caring that she sounded like a child.

"You know what? I don't really care. You have two options: you can go to sleep or I can knock you out. Your choice. However, I think it would be easier on you and your recovery to just rest willingly."

This ultimatum fell on deaf ears—Sarah had already fallen asleep.

~*~*~

Edward simply sat where he was, watching Sarah sleep. She really did look so peaceful with that calm smile on her face. It made him wonder what she might be dreaming about.

Her hair had fallen over part of her face. Gently he reached over and stroked her hair away from it, smiling and leaving his hand there as she unconsciously pressed her face into it.

"She really means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Edward hadn't heard the doctor enter the room.

He couldn't deny it. "Yeah, she does. Why do you ask, though?" He couldn't help but wonder.

The doctor chuckled. "Well, it's not every day some young man rushes in here with a young lady unconscious and obviously severely injured in his arms and a look of sheer panic on his face. And when she finally woke up, it was easy to see both how relieved you were and how happy the two of you seemed to be just to be in the same room."

He quickly examined Sarah and went on his way. Just before he left, though, he said, "Take good care of her when she leaves."

The man was gone before Edward could respond, leaving him with his thoughts.

Just how much did Sarah really mean to him? Certainly he had grown fond of her company. Her quick wits were an added bonus. And kissing her was… phenomenal. But that could mean several things.

He hadn't felt this confused about someone since that thing he'd had for Winry a few years ago. And even then, it hadn't been as bad as this.

Edward's eyes widened slightly as he realized the answer to his question.

He cared for her a _lot_ more than he'd previously thought. He _loved_ her.

At least he was fairly certain he was loved in return. Still, that conversation was one that could and would wait. Preferably until Sarah _wasn't_ in the hospital, at least.

But it would have to take place in the near future. There were still people out there who wanted both of them dead, and the last thing he wanted was for either of them to die before he could say a word.

~*~*~

While Edward was silently pondering their relationship, Sarah was in a half-doze—not really awake, but not asleep either.

She was reaching the same conclusions as Edward was, although she didn't know it. She had to tell him exactly how she felt, and soon.

Well, that gave her a little extra incentive to get out of the hospital fast. She wanted to be well when she finally confessed her love for the blond at her side.

But enough thinking. It was high time to wake up and continue expressing her dislike of hospitals in general.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Umm... wow. Only two chapters left to go. Dang, Ember needs to go to work on the Ed/Roy multichapter that'll be posted after this is done. (She's not even close to done yet, they haven't even hooked up.) So she's running far far away into writing zone now.

Ember and Rags to Riches-- the mutant penguins are writing furiously (or at least, one of them is)


	16. Chapter 16

Apologies to crazy kid 0.0, EclipseRibbon, and FALLING-ANGEL24 for the delay. Ember had a summer job at a sleep-away camp... yeah. She's barely seen a computer in the past six weeks.

But now she's back home and can update soon with the final chapter! *cheers erupt*

Oh, sorry. Forgot to turn off the auto-cheer machine.

In any case...

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 16

Edward spent several more days in the hospital with Sarah. With each passing day she grew more energetic and more opposed to staying in the hospital for one moment longer.

Which was really interesting to deal with because conversely, he was becoming more and more exhausted with each day that came and went.

It was probably because he had slept in a chair every day since Sarah had been admitted to the hospital. There were several hotels nearby, but after the night before she finally regained consciousness he was terrified of leaving her side for too long. And so he slept in the chair, losing pretty much any quality to his sleep and sapping his strength slowly.

Luckily they would be able to leave soon. The doctor was almost entirely satisfied with the progress her head injury had made in healing and he had already put a cast on her broken arm. There wasn't much more he could do, and so their extended hospital stay would be ending in a couple of days.

"Ed!" Sarah said suddenly. "You there?"

Oh. He had almost dozed off. "Yeah, sorry. You were saying?"

Sarah grabbed his chin with her good hand and dragged his face close to her own. "You look absolutely exhausted. Haven't you been sleeping?"

Edward barely restrained himself from squirming uncomfortably. "Yeah," he said.

"Where?" Sarah demanded.

After a brief pause, Edward admitted, "The chair."

"What?!" Sarah exclaimed. "You know that can't be healthy! You can't tell me you've actually gotten any sleep in that thing! Why didn't you find somewhere to stay? I'm absolutely fine and you know it!"

Edward snorted. "Yeah, you're the picture of perfect health, you are."

Sarah glared at him. "That's completely and totally beside the point. In any case, you are getting some actual sleep. Tonight."

"It's just a day or two more, I can deal with it. No need to spend money on somewhere to sleep for that little time."

"I didn't say you were going somewhere else," she said determinedly.

"What?" Edward was admittedly confused.

Looking like she was explaining to a slow child that two and two equaled four, she repeated, "You are going to get some sleep. Here."

Understanding finally dawned on Edward. She wanted him to sleep there. In the bed. With her.

Mild panic began to set in. "That's probably not a good idea," he began.

Sarah took one look at his face and burst into laughter. "You thought… you thought I wanted _that_?!" she asked. Not even bothering to wait for his answer, she continued. "That wouldn't exactly be a remedy for lack of sleep, now would it? Besides, I think we're in agreement that now isn't the time and a hospital isn't the place. No, you are going to get in this bed and you are going to sleep. That is all you're going to do. Do we understand each other?"

Edward nodded in relief. "Yeah," he replied.

"Then what on earth are you waiting for?! Get over here!" she demanded.

Reluctantly he sat on the bed.

Impatient, Sarah yanked him down so that their eyes were level. Luckily enough he was on her right side, so she didn't have to reach across her body awkwardly to accomplish that. Gently turning so that she faced him and gingerly laying her arm over his frame, she muttered, "No leaving as soon as I fall asleep."

Damn. She had thought ahead. With her broken arm there he couldn't move away later like he'd planned to. "No, I won't," he sighed as he quickly fell asleep.

~*~*~

Roy was highly concerned as he walked into the hospital. When Sarah and Fullmetal hadn't returned at the end of their leave, he called Al in Risembool—only to find out that Al and Winry were equally concerned, since the pair hadn't called from East City like they'd promised they would.

Nearly frantic, Roy had checked every contact he could think of in East City, and none had seen the two alchemists. Finally he got hold of an old doctor friend of his, who informed him that he was treating Sarah for a broken arm and head injury and Edward had chosen to stay with her.

Calling Al to inform him of his brother and friend's location, Roy quickly boarded a train to East City to find out what the hell had gotten the pair into the mess they were in.

When he arrived in the city, he briskly walked toward the hospital his friend worked at. Walking through the doors, he actually ran into his good friend Dr. John Hawthorne. Good, that saved him plenty of time.

"Ah, so you did come," John smiled. "Somehow I knew you would, once you found out what was going on. You always did take care of your team like that."

"Spare me the flattery and tell me where they are." Never let it be said that Roy Mustang couldn't get straight to the point.

"All right. Just so you know, you might want to be quiet when you go in; she's probably sleeping. People with head injuries do that a lot," John cautioned as they walked to the room.

Roy rolled his eyes. "Way to state the obvious."

"Thank you, it's just one of my talents. You'd be surprised how many people just don't quite have the knack for it; it's a true art."

He had forgotten that John was like that. Well, in all likelihood he and Sarah were getting along well; she had that strange sense of humor too. That was probably a good thing, as she hated hospitals almost as much as Fullmetal.

Roy's eyes widened as he opened the door.

The first thing he saw was Fullmetal's back. That would have been easy enough to explain, but it got just a little harder as he noted the arm in a cast across his body.

They _hadn't._

Had they?

"There's going to be some explaining to do when they wake up," he grumbled.

"General? What the hell?!" That shocked whisper had to be Fullmetal.

"Ah, Fullmetal. Care to explain what the hell's going on?"

"Quiet, you'll wake her up."

"Maybe that's not a bad idea," he groused, but he dropped his voice all the same. "But it doesn't answer the question. What the hell's going on?"

"It was her idea, not mine," Fullmetal whispered defensively.

"So? You went along with it."

"I didn't exactly have much of a choice."

Really? Somehow Roy thought he'd had a great deal of choice, and he told Fullmetal so.

Suddenly the arm moved. "What the hell is going on?!" Sarah grumbled tiredly.

"Exactly what I was asking Fullmetal. Maybe you'd care to enlighten us?"

There was a pause, and then Sarah slowly sat up. "You… you honestly think…"

"I don't know what to think. That's exactly why I want to know what the hell's going on. All I've heard is that whatever it was was your idea."

"Yeah, it was. So?"

"So it was your idea for the two of you to…" Roy trailed off helplessly.

All of a sudden Sarah leaned over the other edge of the bed and the floor under Roy moved. Unaware of it until it was too late, Roy fell onto the floor rather painfully.

"It wasn't like that!" she snarled. "All we did was sleep!"

At that moment, Dr. John Hawthorne walked into the room.


	17. Chapter 17

Well, everyone, this is the last chapter. *sob*

Ember's kinda sad, in a way. This is the last posting of her first monster baby. Her second, an Ed/Roy bit by the name of "For the Love of Music!", is already in the posting process. You should all read that, assuming shonen-ai (they don't really do anything, kinda like in this story) is ok with you. If not, then please don't read it. No flames are appreciated if they are not from one enlisted man/colonel/general/fuhrer (depending on the story) named Roy Mustang.

EclipseRibbon, Yay for Alphonse Elric, and Son of the morning, thank you for your kind reviews.

And now for the end... *runs to get tissues*

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The Acquiring of Knowledge

Chapter 17

Taking one look around, taking in the bed, its two occupants, and the general on the floor, the doctor wisely decided to turn around and walk right back out of the room, presumably to check back later. Sarah really didn't care, as long as the situation was less awkward when he came back.

That still left the problem of Roy. Well, it would be easy enough to silence him. Apparently he was easily disturbed.

Sarah grinned. This could get interesting. Besides, Roy owed her. It was payback time.

"You know something?" she started, looking at Ed.

"What?"

"I think Roy's just not used to the idea that we're going to be together a lot more than we had been before. Think we can fix that?"

"I'm not entirely sure where you're going with this," Edward admitted.

"You will be in a few seconds." And with her good hand Sarah yanked Edward on top of her and started kissing him like there was no tomorrow.

She'd had no idea it would feel as good as it did. Soon this stopped being about scaring Roy and started being about the feelings she was experiencing as Edward reacted. It should be illegal, the way he ran his hands ever so gently down her sides to her waist, she thought as she shivered agreeably.

However, she soon stopped thinking as his lips gently ran down the side of her neck. Gasping, she wound the fingers of her right hand into his blond hair and tilted her head to give him more room.

Suddenly Edward rolled away, leaving them both struggling to breathe normally again.

Sarah looked over at him questioningly. Why on earth had he stopped? The thought had been completely out of her head.

Edward glanced over in her direction and groaned audibly. "Don't look at me like that. You know full well why it had to stop."

Oh. Well, that answered a lot. She hadn't known he would react like _that_.

In an attempt to ignore the slightly awkward silence that was permeating the room, she looked over to where Roy was. All of a sudden she started laughing.

Apparently their little display had been enough to make the great general faint.

"What?" Edward wanted to know.

"Look at Roy!" she exclaimed.

Soon they were both laughing.

The doctor returned. "Oh dear, what have you two done to this poor man?"

The pair grinned rather sheepishly. "I have a feeling we just scarred him permanently," Sarah admitted.

"He doesn't scare easily. What _were_ you doing? No, I don't even want to know. Just don't ever do whatever it was in front of him again. I don't like seeing friends of mine knocked out like that."

"Wait," Sarah said. "You _know _him?!"

"Yeah. I used to be in the military a long time ago," he revealed. "But it wasn't really the kind of life I wanted. They spend their time killing. I realized shortly after my first battle that I wanted to heal, not kill. So I left as soon as I could. But that's in the past. In any case, the short answer is yes, I know him."

"Wow. It's amazing just how many people know him."

"Kind of like a thought I had when I was younger, that he always knew a little bit of everything that was going on," Edward interjected.

"In any case, do we have good news, like me suddenly being able to get out of this place?" Sarah asked hopefully.

"Actually, yes. You should be able to leave tomorrow."

Sarah was overjoyed. As nice as the doctor was, it was still a hospital, and Sarah did not like hospitals at all.

Knowing exactly what she was thinking, Edward murmured, "Hear that? We can get out of here soon. Then we can head back to Central and you can bury your head in books again, just like you always wanted."

Thumping him for his remark, Sarah turned to the doctor. "That's good news. I was starting to feel like I'd never escape."

"Well, I offer my sincerest regrets, but it appears that that is not the case. Apparently the guard dogs I stationed at the doors just for you ran off, and the electric fence stopped working," the doctor grinned.

"Damn, and I was looking forward to a challenge. But no, it seems we'll be able to just walk out the front door."

"Apparently so. I really need to hire better people."

"I've got some names if you want them. They really do a good job, but they're not exactly cheap."

"Sarah!" Apparently Edward had gotten over being thumped.

"Well? I do," Sarah remarked. "It's not like I'm lying."

"Where do you learn this stuff?" Edward asked, exasperated.

Sarah looked at him pointedly. "That, Ed, would be on a need-to-know basis."

"And say I needed to know?"

"Then I would tell you. But you don't. Therefore you're not finding out."

Edward sighed. "What on earth am I going to do with you?"

"Well, for starters, you could hug me."

"For starters, huh?" Edward asked as he complied.

"Well, not to interrupt, but I'll be taking this opportunity to leave. Should I prop him up against this wall here?" the doctor asked.

"That'd be lovely, thank you," Sarah responded. "In any case, then there are several other things you could do, you know."

"Feeling needy, are we?"

"You know it."

About an hour later Roy came to and quickly left after informing them that he expected to see them in Central as soon as Sarah was released from the hospital. Apparently he'd had enough for one day.

~*~*~

Somehow Sarah had wormed her way into his arms as she fell asleep again, Edward noted. Not that he was complaining—quite the opposite, in fact. He loved being able to hold her like this, just quietly being with her.

Mind, other aspects of their relationship were great too. But he hadn't done this with anyone before, ever, and he loved that he was able to. He was truly lucky for once in his life that he had met Sarah.

He didn't even care that that was probably the sappiest thought he'd ever had about anyone.

Soon, however, this quiet time would end. Sarah would leave the hospital, and they would both go back to their respective jobs. They would probably see each other quite often, however, depending on how their conversation the next day went. Personally he hoped it went well.

In all fairness, he did more than that. He _needed_ that conversation to go well, more than he'd needed anything before. Edward felt as if his entire being hinged on Sarah's response.

It probably didn't. But love was a rather strong motivator towards melodramatic emotions and thoughts. Edward thought he just might choke on all the sugary sap that occasionally went through his head.

That didn't really bother him, though, as he began to fall asleep too.

~*~*~

Sarah woke up the next day in Ed's arms feeling better than she had since she had gotten into this hospital. The reason was simple: she would finally get to leave this place.

She smiled at the thought, which helped to mask her anxiety about what she was going to do upon leaving.

The morning passed in a flash. It seriously seemed to Sarah as if it had been five minutes between the time she woke up and the time she finally left the hospital.

As they walked to the train station to head back to Central, Sarah suddenly stopped Ed.

"What is it?" he asked, somewhat confused.

Sarah hesitated. She was nervous beyond belief, but she needed to get this done now. It was more important than anything to her that he knew how she felt. "I… there's something you need to know."

"Well? Let's hear it, then." Ed smiled, but his eyes focused on her face, trying to figure out what on earth she was trying to say.

"I… I know this is fast, but I figured… no, I _needed_ you to know that… I love you," she blurted out, red in the face and unable to meet his gaze.

Since her eyes were glued to the ground in front of her she missed the brief look of shock on Ed's face followed by a huge smile. She had no idea what his reaction would be until fingers found their way under her chin and lifted her head into a kiss.

Relief flooded through her as she threw her arms around Ed. She wasn't going to just be thrown aside. This hadn't been about anything but being with her.

When they broke apart, Ed leaned his forehead against hers. "I love you too," he whispered.

Sarah tightened her grip on him as she smiled at those words.

It was funny in a way, that all of this had sprung out of a simple quest for knowledge. Well, they'd gotten their knowledge. And then some. But this was far better than any prior knowledge she'd ever acquired.


End file.
